Faya Gada
by Arinlianette
Summary: Micah Pike is the second female ever known to join the Guard. As Kane's mentee, she quickly climbs the ranks and finds herself being floated for a crime she did not commit. Kane was kind enough to offer an alternative, being that the Ark was running out of air. What will the Ground offer her? RoanxOCxBlake Adult language and themes ahead. AUish
1. Prologue

**I've been watching a lot of The 100 and all the craziness gave me writer's block for my other story, Raising Dawn. So now I have to attempt to write something about The 100 before I get back to the Flanagans. Hopefully, I can just work on both stories at the same time.**

 **Anyway, _Faya Gada_ is an OC story. I have a pairing (more like several) in mind, but we'll see where this goes.**

 **I will be using references throughout the story which will be marked inside brackets like this [...]. The notes will be at the end of each chapter.**

 **This chapter is a glimpse int** **o her future on the show. The following chapters will be her life events on the Ark leading up to this prologue. Kudos to you if you translate the title :)**

* * *

 _ **Faya Gada | Prologue**_

She took off running.

A warm, sticky breath was on her heels and she skipped a step, falling forward just as the wolf tried to pounce her. It didn't anticipate her mistake and landed just above her head. Both figures were disoriented for a moment. But before the canine could snap her wrist into its jaw, she vaulted up and began running again. And with even more urgency.

The blood covering her face now seemed to boil and heat rushed over her body. She couldn't afford to falter now. She couldn't afford to die.

But she knew she couldn't do this for much longer. The wild beast was getting pretty close. Her aimless slipping in the mud did none to help. She had to find a way out of this. Quick.

With an extra burst of energy seeming from nowhere, she jumped up to grab a branch from the tree above her. Its arm snapped and she tucked her head into her chest to help her body roll. This action had cost her precious time that she didn't have and she could feel its breath on her back now. White hot pain traveled up her spine as her body was overcome with heat once again.

She could feel the stick pressing into her gut now, and air refused to return to her lungs. The wolf had planted itself on her back now, its claws digging into her shoulders. Seeing as her legs were free, she kicked them out behind her and swept them to the side. She used the momentum to propel her body sideways, effectively shoving the wolf off her and onto the ground beside her. It quickly reclaimed its position above her, teeth snapping. She was quick enough to throw the stick in front of her face. Now the wolf had no choice but to try and eat through the piece of wood.

The joints in her hands started to burn as if stretched for too long as she held the beast at bay. The wolf was easily the size of a grown man with a mutated green eye which drank her in savagely. If this branch broke, she was a goner.

Noticing the strength gradually leaving her arms, she knew she had to do something soon. Somehow, one of her arms dropped a few inches. This gave the wolf the chance it needed to go in for the kill. But it didn't anticipate her ramming the end of the branch right into its exposed mouth, shoving against the back of its throat.

In its own frenzy, the wolf shoved forward as the branch was driven in at a different angle. A gush of red painted her face as well as the inside of her mouth. And the wolf's body slackened..

She killed the wolf. _She_ killed the wolf!

Though her body had been shaking with quick hit breathes, a cry began to crawl up her throat. And she let it. She closed her eyes and relaxed the tensed muscles in her body. She didn't care about the sting in her back nor the blood she could taste in her mouth. She did it.

She was now a gona [ **1** ].

* * *

 **Footnotes :**

 **1 – gona = warrior**


	2. Chapter One

**Just a reminder, the prologue chapter was just a glimpse of what is to come. Here on out, the story should be linear. We're on the Ark, in case you can't tell. Anyway, enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own _The 100_. That's all Jason Rothenberg and Kass Morgan. But I do own Micah and Veronica Pike as well as Tevin.**

* * *

 _ **Faya Gada | 1**_

"Mikey. Mick. Mickey…Earth to Micah—"

A balled up napkin landed in a nest of unruly dark hair before falling into a hot liquid. The small splash of heat on her hand startled Micah back to reality. Bringing her hand to her mouth, she suckled on the soup-covered spot and retrieved the napkin, placing it beside her bowl.

"I've been talking to you for the past ten minutes. I know you didn't hear any word of it."

A dark eyebrow raised. "Was it important?"

The bald man across from her huffed and crossed his arms over the table. " _I_ thought it was. I was talking about the—"

"—new rationing regulations," she finished with him, playing with her soup.

"So you _were_ listening."

Five years of knowing this android of a woman and Tevin still had to guess around her. He studied the blank face across from him. Her usually straightened hair was a curly mess and fell around her shoulders. Her hazel eyes were calculating as always, even if they never left her bowl. Her almond skin didn't seem to shine as it usually did. Overall, she looked like she had a rough night.

Tevin wanted to ask about it, but he knew she would downplay whatever was bothering her as if it were nothing. For someone that took care of themselves, he didn't think she was being very healthy. Sure, she was throwing herself into her training, but he noticed her cutting meals and giving away some of her rations. Not to mention her slightly unkempt appearance.

And he knew that outside of himself, she didn't really talk to anyone about her personal life. That is, other than the Councilman.

"I already know you're going to say 'great'…but are you okay?"

He watched her lick her lips then push her bowl of soup away. "You're right. I _am_ great." She straightened her grey top and shrugged on the jacket issued to guards, buckling the fastenings and clips. "Since I'm feeling great, I think I'll head over to Mecha," Tevin inwardly groaned, "and put in some hours."

Micah liked to use the stationary equipment to go through a harsh workout regimen of pushups and pull ups. But sometimes the workouts became dangerous, especially when she was upset about something. Someone once caught her screaming through the pain of doing pull ups upside down. Shocked, the person alerted the guards. A whole platoon crowded the corridor and they had to talk her down from the bars as if she were trying to take her life, but she wouldn't listen. The incident ended with her being forced to take two weeks temporary leave for psychological stress.

Now Tevin knew something was wrong. If he allowed her to repeat the last incident, his boss would surely demote him.

"Um," he shot up from his seat, catching her arm. "Why don't we do some sparring?" She looked at him as if trying to decide whether or not this was really happening. "We haven't had any action in a while and I noticed my skills slipping."

Micah straightened her back before smirking with her eyes. "Didn't know you had any to begin with."

"Hey!"

She finally let the smirk pull her lips and took hold of both of their trays. Tevin watched his friend walk toward the back of the dining hall to dispose of their dishes. He saw the blank expression creep over her face as soon as her back turned from him.

Something was definitely wrong.

* * *

"Veronica Pike! Veronica Pike, open the door. We know you're inside."

The door opened with a _swoosh_.

A thin woman stood next to the door, tugging the loose sleeves of her top to her elbows. Her long, dark hair was braided into cornrows around her head and pulled into a ponytail.

"Officers. Can I help you?" With the look she was giving them, she was clearly shocked.

"Ms. Pike, we just have some questions for you regarding your daughter. We'd like you to come with us."

Large, tired brown eyes blinked up at the guard in front of her. "I'm sorry. I don't think I need to go anywhere with you without knowing some more information first. Henry [ **1** ], what is this about?"

Shumway pushed his way past her and into the home. He gestured to his men who surged forward, crowding the woman in. "We are in the middle of an investigation. We asked you to come with us nicely, we won't ask again. I would provide your full cooperation now, Ms. Pike…And it's Commander Shumway, ma'am."

Veronica was confused as to why her friend was acting this way toward her, but she felt a hand fall on her shoulder behind her and knew she had to do what he said.

"Charles is expecting me to be here when he comes home…" She provided this information just to warn Henry of what would occur when her husband discovered she was gone. But he only saw this remark as a weak means of avoidance.

As the men grasp Veronica by the arms, Shumway pushed his way back through the door and turned back to now stoic stance.

"Then we better make this quick," he sneered, stalking down the hallway.

* * *

"Ow!"

"You have to throw your whole leg over. No, like this—"

"Ow, ow, ow…"

"You big baby…"

Kane could hear the sound of something hitting a mat. When he turned the corner, he could see a mass of curls straddling a bald, young man. Marcus' eye roll was interrupted by someone walking into his back. Momentarily, he forgot he had a small crowd of cadets shadowing him.

Clasping his hands behind his back, he cleared his throat.

"Inspector Graham. Pike."

Micah craned her head to look at the Councilman. She kept her hands locked around Tevin's locked arms below her torso. When she slightly turned her body to address her superior, Tevin let out a pained groan at the twisting of his limbs. Marcus barely heard the man squeak out a strained greeting from the ground.

"Councilman. A pleasure to see you, sir." Micah quickly shifted so she now comfortably sat atop Tevin's body, his arms remaining locked behind him at an awkward angle. She placed her hands on either of her opened legs as if they were having a casual conversation. "What can we do for you, sir?"

Kane glanced at the curious men standing behind him before speaking. "Just showing the new cadets around the barracks." He turned his head slightly to see Tevin's squished face. "They were supposed to begin their drills today, but the Commander and his lieutenants are nowhere to be found. I don't suppose you know anything about that?"

Micah brought up the front of her shirt to wipe the sweat from her neck. "The Commander said something about an investigation. Didn't give details and I didn't ask." They could all hear Tevin squirming from under her, but none could understand what he was saying beyond the mat. "If you're going to start the drilling soon, we can vacate. We were just burning some extra kcals."

Tevin's eye twitched involuntarily from its place against the floor at the comment. _Is that what she called this torture? 'Burning' calories?!_

Marcus was slightly peeved. He was stuck babysitting these guppies and his head of Guard was nowhere to be found. And it seemed the whole Guard had been informed of Shumway's activities. Kane didn't like not knowing information.

"That's alright," He could be seen looking around the room, thinking. "I have a better idea. Why don't _you_ take over the drills in the Commander's place?"

Micah's eyes narrowed in on the man before her. _Her_ train the initiates? Did he really trust her with them?

Before she could think about it further, the man under her desperately breathed out, "Please say yes."

Kane looked at her, no longer waiting for her confirmation. "You've got three hours with them before lunch." Before she could say anything else, "Just go through the _basics_."

As he turned to walk out the door, he caught the distraught looks of the cadets. They were worried about being left with this woman. _They should be._

He eyed her one last time, "I'll send someone hourly to check that they're not all broken."

He left the twelve men standing in the opening.

* * *

 **Footnotes :**

 **1 – I don't think we ever learned Shumway's first name so I gave him one. He kind of looks like he could be a Henry to me.**


	3. Chapter Two

**There should be at least five more chapters before Micah makes it to the ground. Just FYI. I want to solidify her character as well as her relationship with the people of the Ark.**

 **Warning: harsh language up ahead. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own _The 100_. That's all Jason Rothenberg and Kass Morgan. But I do own Micah, Tevin, Coal, Martin, and Lindle.**

* * *

 ** _Faya Gada | 2_**

Bellamy groaned when he landed on his back for what seemed to be the eleventh time.

The girl, Micah Pike, had put them in pairs and he was getting his ass kicked. His partner, Coal, had flocked to one him before Pike could assign them. She originally was going to put Blake with a guy twice his size, but seeing him stand next to the other initiate from Factory station gave her an idea. Both were similar in build and it didn't seem like either of them had any fighting experience.

She let them work together on the drills for about fifteen minutes before changing it up, forcing all the pairs to rotate. Two rotations later, Bellamy ended up with the guy she originally wanted to put him with. Cliff Martin [ **1** ] was a tall drink of water, hovering over Bellamy by nearly four inches at 6'1". His imposing figure was riddled with muscles. He sported a buzz cut and had a scar lining the side of his right brow. Bellamy wondered how that scar got there.

Cliff leaned down to pull Bellamy up from the mat, a playful grin on his face.

"Ya alright, man?"

Bellamy reluctantly accepted the help, hiding a wince at his wrist. Drilling with Martin felt like he was training to be a rag doll. Blake actually tried, copying the moves Micah had shown them in the earlier demonstrations. But he wasn't able to actually apply them as Martin kept dodging and blocking the moves before they could even start. They still had another five minutes before the next rotation, but Bellamy was tired of getting pushed around.

"You gotta plant your foot behind you before going for a swing," Martin tried advising him, the grin never leaving his face.

 _Okay, now I_ know _this guy is playing with me!_

"Here, I'll let you get me this time."

Hands on his hips, Bellamy took deep breaths. He was still trying to collect his bearings from the last attempt at a jab. Getting pushed around had finally taken its toll, and Bellamy decided he was done with this fool.

"Come on, I'm ready," Martin tried to coax him. He held up his hands, and patted one of his arms. "Right here."

Bellamy held his position and just looked at his partner. Martin kept his arrogant stride, still waiting for Bellamy to come forward so he can trick him again. Martin seemed to get impatient and came forward, faking a strike at his partner's side. As a reflex, Bellamy backed away with his hands in the air. "That's not proper form. I can still get you this way." Martin continued to press forward until he had backed Blake into a wall. Some of the other groups nearby stopped working to watch the display. "Come on, hit me."

Micah stood from her crouched position near a pair she had been helping. She heard the drop in volume and turned to the rest of the room to see most of the cadets watching the giant and his average-sized partner. On closer inspection, she could see the larger one's teasing nature. There was also an air of dominance surrounding him. She had noticed it when she saw him working the assembly lines in factory during her patrols in passing. He obviously thought he was God's gift to whatever room he was in at the time.

It didn't bother her initially, as she ignored a lot of things people did around her. But she thought about how Kane had been pushing more responsibilities onto her since the last floating and how he left these new bloods with her with very little instruction. Usually, he was very meticulous with her when giving an order and would micromanage to make sure the job got done correctly. He was grooming her for something, and for him to give her full charge of this group of young men—many her own age—meant he was testing her. Testing her on what, she didn't know.

Now she wished Tevin hadn't gone on his shift. She didn't feel like dealing with someone that acted like a child. But the Guard had enough pricks like him inspecting the halls. They didn't need another.

She made her way to the two, signaling to the others that they could stop the exercises. She adopted a stance akin to Kane's. "Do we have a problem here?"

Martin turned his body away from the other man and faced the woman-in-charge. When they had first entered this chamber, Martin had been quick to appraise the girl's athletic body. An aesthetically pleasing figure, her strong thighs gripping her opponent. He easily pictured those thighs gripping something else. Now that she stood before him just two feet away, he was thinking about those legs again. _Mercy._

No one noticed the sound of a door sliding open.

Taking her new victim by surprise, Micah jabbed her foot out behind his knee and effectively dropped him on his hands. Martin looked back up at her, now focusing on her sweaty face.

"What is your name, _cadet_?" Micah emphasized the word, her stony gaze piercing his blue eyes.

He gave her his best smolder. "Martin, _ma'am_."

Micah shifted her face to appear amused. "Well, _Martin_ ," she said his name sardonically before a fake charming smile stretched over her face, "thank you for letting me demonstrate another disarming technique for the rest of your troupe." She had begun to circle the brute while addressing her charges, almost scholarly in her instruction. She could feel Martin's gaze following her from behind her back.

"When your opponent hasn't sorted out his or her priorities, it's fairly easy to get the upper hand. Even if they are bigger than you." Martin had the audacity to look offended before something connected with his jaw. His head had no choice but to extend to the side from the brunt force of the kick.

Bellamy was unable to pay attention to what she was saying after seeing his instructor kick backwards into Martin's face without looking. Her arms were still locked behind her. She looked around the room as if she hadn't just kicked a guy in the face.

"Fuck," he heard Martin mutter.

Micah fell on her calves, dropped the smile and regarded the hunched over man with annoyance. She could see something stewing in his eyes. " _Fuck_ , indeed."

Bellamy saw his partner's eyes flash and knew he had snapped. Martin's pride was beyond wounded. It was like the blood that fled from the corner of his mouth activated something inside of him, surging. _Who the fuck does this bitch think she is? She thinks she can just kick me around?! Fuck that!_

Martin's head whipped forward. It would've caught Micah's crown had she not seen it coming. One of her arms shielding her face while the other crossed Martin's shoulder, directing his head to follow the path her arms constructed. Then her arms wrapped around his skull, constricting him like a snake. He knew he had more brute strength than her and tried to use that to take back controls. She, of course, anticipated this and kicked him onto his side. She grabbed one of his arms behind his back and twisted it before leaving her foot push against the area just above his elbow.

When it seemed like she was done, she placed her arm around Martin's neck and pulled. Now he was facing Bellamy, his face red from pain and lack of air. His arm reached out desperately in front of him, looking like he was reaching out to Bellamy. Blake simply watched in awe as his opponent continued to lose air.

"You done thinking you're God's gift to all of creation?" Martin's eyes closed in frustration as he continued to try and break free. "'Cause it doesn't look like much of a gift to me."

The tanned Coal stepped forward sheepishly. He may have thought Martin deserved what he was getting, but he thought he may have had enough. "Dude, I'd give it up if I were you…"

The man struggled for a few more seconds before he clearly took what Coal said to heart and thought about his situation. He was completely under this woman's control and there was nothing he could do about it. Humiliation swept over him as he allowed his body to slacken, though she still didn't let up. She had to make sure he understood.

"…I…I am n-not," he gurgled, veins popping.

When he quieted, Micah tried to pull the answer out of him. "What aren't you?"

"…n-'M not…God's gift…t-mankind," he stuttered out.

Micah sat for a moment. "I don't remember saying anything about mankind."

When Martin let out a sound similar to a whimper, Micah decided he had had enough and released him. His body fell forward as he began to cough uncontrollably. After returning her hands behind her back, she stepped further away from the wreathing Martin and looked at her crowd. "I would love to call him a name right now, but I'm an adult."

"Bitch."

"Cadet." She had a bored look on her face now, unfazed by his insult.

Kane decided he would now make himself present and stepped forward, two sergeants remaining at the door.

"The Councilman," someone muttered. The men parted, straightening their postures and falling into line.

Bellamy was still standing against the wall, looking at Martin until Coal came and dragged him into line. Micah stepped to the side to allow Kane access to the pupils. Her own stance was a lazy version of his.

"I thought you weren't coming back until lunch. It's barely been an hour—"

"Exactly the amount of time I trusted you with them," he cut in. The look he gave her read that he would speak with her later about her actions, but he ignored her and surged forward to examine the cadets. They were a sweaty mess and one had even removed his shirt during training. They all looked beat.

Bellamy was avoiding eye contact with anyone in the room, almost in embarrassment. He knows none of what occurred was his fault, but he couldn't help feeling responsible for the halt in their activities. Martin had pushed his buttons and made him feel weak. He didn't join the Guard to be weak. He needed to be in a position to protect his family from the rest of the Ark so his mother no longer needed to.

Kane turned to the initiate still resting on the ground.

"Enjoying the view from down there?"

Martin just stared at the floor.

"Denby," he called to one of his guards standing at the door. "Escort Cadet...?" He looked to Micah for the name and she grudgingly gave it to him. "…Martin to medical. The rest of you will be touring the lower stations then get an early lunch. Guardsman Lindle will see to that. Lieutenant Commander [ **2** ], I'll see you in my office for a debriefing."

He had effectively dismissed everyone.

Bellamy started toward the door but stopped at a realization, looking at the only woman in the room.

 _Lieutenant Commander?!_

* * *

 **Footnotes :**

 **1 – I imagine Cliff to look like Greg Finley (from _iZombie_ , _The Flash_ , and _Star Crossed_ ). He is my personal, beautiful eye candy.**

 **2 – So, Micah is a lieutenant commander, or rather _the_ lieutenant commander. For this story, it basically means above lieutenant but not quite commander status. In Micah's case, this title doesn't give her power over other lieutenants or even sergeants outside of her jurisdiction which is Violent Crime. And just as she can't tell the others how to do their job, they can't tell her how to do hers. Her superior is Shumway but Kane has taken it upon himself to prepare her for taking Shumway's job as Commander because he likes her more than he likes Shumway. He likes having a backup plan and if something were to happen to Shumway, he wants someone he trusts (aka someone he practically mentored and could have in his pocket) to take the spot. The position is passed on by seniority/rank, but the Council can always appoint someone. ****Anyway, this position is totally made up (by me). There isn't a _whole_ lot of detail on the Guard system of the Ark so I'm making stuff up. Hope this doesn't confuse anyone.**


	4. Chapter Three

**My gosh, the number of views and story alerting happening with this story is encouraging. You guys made me blush! *o***

 **Anyway, there are three little footnotes in this chapter. Read if you're interested. Also, this chapter has some material that has the potential to be confusing plot-wise. So shoot me questions if this is the case with you while you're reading.**

 **And I haven't mentioned this yet, but reviews are awesome, so...(ya'll should do 'the thing').**

 **Warning: mild language up ahead. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own _The 100_. That's all Jason Rothenberg and Kass Morgan. But I do own Micah, Tevin, Veronica, Coal, and Martin.**

* * *

 _ **Faya Gada | 3**_

Tevin knocked on the metal slab of a door. The door slid open and large hands pulled him through the threshold. He heard the _swoosh_ of the door just before his back was slammed against it.

"Where's Veronica?"

Tevin almost answered the question but decided not to. He had heard about Veronica's possible involvement in some case. What he didn't know was if Pike was supposed to know about it. Due to his relationship with Micah he knew he had to walk on eggshells around his former Earth Skills teacher, being that he is the reason Micah joined the Guard in the first place thus damaging her relationship with her father.

"Woah, dude," he nervously laughed. "Cool it for just a moment?"

Pike pulled on the front of the guard's uniform. He hadn't meant to be so aggressive toward the young man, but his feelings were always heightened when he saw his daughter's friend. "I asked you a question, Tevin. Where is Veronica?"

The guard straightened up and lowered his voice a bit. "Mr. Pike…I could have you charged with assaulting an officer and I really don't wanna do that."

As if realizing he had lost himself, Charles dropped his hands. He stepped backwards into his and Veronica's tiny kitchenette, leaning on the counter.

This time when he pressed, he sounded much calmer. "Did they take Veronica?"

Seeing the anguish in the man's eyes, Tevin nodded his head but elaborated, "Just for questioning. She hasn't committed any crime that we know of." He knew the system was all about being caught. "There's just this _huge_ case their working on—"

"Case?" Pike ran his hand down his face in exasperation. Why would they need Veronica? Whose idea was it to take his wife?

Immediately, a curly head came into his mind and his thoughts shifted to the young woman that used to sit on his shoulders as a little girl to see over crowds of people.

The day his daughter expressed interest in enforcing the law just because of some scrawny kid, Charles nearly threw a chair. He was an avid supporter of the Ark's justice system and as tough as it was, floatation never really bothered him. It was an awful thing that occurred when it hit close to home. But if no one home broke the law, there was no reason to oppose the necessary practice.

No, the problem with Mikey's involvement in the Guardsmen was all the risk. She may be a tough girl but he knew she was a very empathetic person, even when she didn't show it. Her work in the Violent Crimes unit didn't help him none to sleep at night knowing how much her work could be hurting her psychologically.

He still remembered her staggering through their door, face fresh with salted tears and blood caked into her fingernails. She cried on his and Veronica's shoulder and told them of the suicidal father that had lost his son to disease. The Ark didn't have the proper medicine to treat the rare condition and the father nicked a major artery in his own neck with a pair of surgical scissors, unable to go on with his life. Mikey had the chance to stop him. She could've shot him in the leg or somewhere minor to distract him. But she hesitated. In her shock, she had caught the dying man in her arms, his blood literally on her hands. While he had insisted that it wasn't her fault—which is wasn't—she just threw herself into his wife's arms, crying her pain away.

After that day, she started hiding things, holding her feelings dangerously close. She stopped coming home for dinner and though she gained a lot of muscle from self-imposed physical training, she started to thin out. Probably from not eating.

What had thrown Charles over the edge was finding out she had formed a…physical relationship with one of the other cadets in her group. Scandalous news spread like wildfire on that space station. His daughter's business would be no exception. And he had to find out from one of his students.

In his vengeful lecturing, he just couldn't cease from telling her she couldn't act like a harlot while living under his roof.

Which is why she no longer lived under said roof.

"…Does this have anything to do with Mikey?"

"What?" Tevin's eyebrows pulled together. "I think if Micah did something, I would know about it. Besides, you know your daughter can't lie. Couldn't lie to save her life." Pike crossed his arms. "Why bother committing a crime you can't lie about?"

Charles examined Tevin.

This boy had once barely stood at his chest. Now he reached beyond Pike's head a few inches with his hair clean-shaven and form filled out. But he could still see the lost puppy that would follow his little girl around the classroom. He had let her fight his battles, keep the bullies at bay; the scared child was too afraid to defend himself. It was him who was too afraid to join the Guard and convinced Micah to apply with him. Tevin had taken his Mikey away from him.

At Pike's silence, the other man saw an opportunity. "Hey, I…I never got the chance to talk to you about...you know, everything."

Pike's eyes seemed to not really be focusing on him. Tevin knew that practically anything he said outside of answering his teacher's questions held little interest. But Micah was his best friend, and if there was a chance to fix her damaged relationship with her family…

"That…," Tevin searched for the right wording with his hands on his hips. "… _thing_ Mike and I did that one night."

"I know you all were young and stupid. I don't need a reminder of that."

"Oh, right…" The guard felt the pressure in his shoulders decrease. "Look, it didn't mean anything. We were just fooling around and—"

"You were being kids. I _know_. Your generation is always so quick to forget that I was a kid once too."

It seemed that even Pike was unwinding a little, his wife's whereabouts still in the small corner of his mind. And surprisingly, the two shared a little laugh at their own memories.

"I'm actually really relieved to hear that, sir." He let out a breath. "You know, I thought this conversation was supposed to be a lot more awkward."

Pike blinked. "Why ever for? I may miss my trophy, but I don't need a piece a metal to tell me I'm good at my job. No hard feelings."

He got a confused expression in response. "…Trophy? I didn't trash your trophy. That was Micah."

Tevin was rewarded with a confused look of his own.

"So…we're not talking about when my trophy got welded into a fork?"

"No. I was talking about when we were together."

"Together, like…? What the hell are we talking about, boy?"

Just then a crackle broke through.

" _cccrrr_ …Grus to Graham… _cccrrr_ …You're needed in Sector 4… _cccrrr_."

Tevin nearly cried in relief. "Graham here. On route to you, sir... _cccrrr_."

Charles' body tensed back up. What had this boy had been about to say?

"Mr. Pike, I've thoroughly enjoyed this little visit which probably won't happen again for another year. But duty calls. Oh, if I hear anything about Veronica…"

He trailed off, leaving it up to Pike to infer his meaning. He couldn't have ran out of there faster.

* * *

Marcus Kane was a headstrong leader with a no-nonsense attitude. While others felt that he was overstepping his boundaries, Micah felt like he wasn't doing it enough. There were twelve space stations afloat hovering around the sickly Earth with nearly twenty-six hundred people living and breathing limited resources. She knew that there was an ethics to any empire or civilization, but she sometimes saw how the ethics fell short for the people of the Ark. Wasted supplies, broken families, frozen bodies shooting from the airlock. While she understood that the rules were there to help them thrive, she had a hard time understanding the _when_ and _why_.

There were times in human history where certain societies had to limit population growth or rule under martial law to preserve a nation. Greats such as Twain, Stephen King [ **1** ], and Orwell littered their work with both the greatest and worst parts of humanity. She couldn't help comparing the Ark to that of the dystopic society depicted by Orwell. Often times it seemed like there was a Big Brother watching over their shoulders, a Big Brother that didn't give a damn about special circumstances. She wondered if Kane called her there for another special circumstance.

When Kane remained standing, Micah started sweating from her armpits. She could feel a tickle.

"Sit."

She obeyed and he didn't talk for a long time.

The last time she was in this office, it was in response to an incident with medical. The Ark's contraceptive [ **2** ] capabilities were so heavily sparse that some women—those that have no other children—were forced to bear their children whether they have the means to care for the child or not. The woman's only alternative would've been self-harm. It was a month ago when a woman and her unborn child were floated. Because she already had a child of her own and refused to get rid of the one on its way, she broke the law. _She_ broke the law by choosing to not kill her unborn child.

Not knowing how sensitive the subject was for her, Kane brought her along to the airlock chamber where she was put in charge of comforting the woman. Micah remembers her name, Gemma Neely, because that was also the first time she had ever killed someone. There of course was the time when she wasn't able to save a grieving father from ending his life, and she still blamed herself for that. But her pressing that big red button made Gemma's death different. This was a black mark on Micah's soul.

She knew another part of it was that she could see a bit of herself in the woman. She never told anybody, but she had gone through a similar situation herself when she had just graduated from Cadet to Guardsman two years prior to Gemma's execution. She fooled around with the wrong person and got knocked up. Her new privileges as a guard granted her options that Gemma didn't have. But like a coward, she took it. She killed her baby just so she could continue working in law enforcement [ **3** ]. That was where she and Gemma were different, other than Gemma already having a child. Gemma was brave and stood up for her child. Micah had killed her baby.

She could still recall the remark Kane made to her when she tried to side with Gemma in her court hearing. 'She made the choice to break the law,' he had said. In other words, _she_ made the choice to die. Micah cried at these words and he didn't know why, but that's because he had no idea who he was saying those words to. _But what if that had been me?_ Micah thought. What if she had made the choice to die?

"Great performance."

Micah knew that was meant to be sarcastic, but anyone else wouldn't be able to tell. She crossed her arms over her chest and slumped lazily in the metal chair, face locked. "Always happy to please. Curious—how much did you see?"

"Well you turned into my miniature and nearly dislocated that man's knee—"

Micah exploded, her mask dropping. "Oh, come on! A guy like that needed to be put in his place."

"Hmm, and what place is that? A civilian grievance so you can get floated off this station?"

She couldn't help rolling her eyes. This man was always being so dramatic and she voiced this. "Floated? Oh, you mean like those parents that steal for their kids?"

His fist slammed against the wall beside him, "Dammit, Pike! You're always joking." The action would've startled her, but she was expecting this discussion to fly more on the aggressive side. While Kane had a strong, unyielding command, Micah was unforgiving and didn't apologize for her actions. Another reason, she was sitting in that chair just looking at him. "Are you not afraid of me, is that it?"

"What is there to be afraid of?"

"I'm a councilman. I have the Guard, AKA _you_ , in my back pocket. Does that mean anything to you?"

She pretend to think. "No, not really."

"Well, it should. Tell me, how much time do we spend together?"

Micah was confused. "As of late, none?"

"No, no. Don't be literal. How many hours a week do I spend lecturing you, teaching you strategies, combat techniques, doing book reports, sitting in on Council meetings…How many hours?"

It seemed like a strange question of him to ask, but she figured it would lead to him somehow pointing his finger at her. She was simply showing that prick who was in charge. It wasn't her fault it required physical interaction to figure that out.

"Kane, you know I'm good at throwing punches, not numbers."

"A lot of hours, Pike. The answer is a lot of hours." The man couldn't help running his hand over his face in frustration. She wasn't getting the point. "Why would I spend all that time doing those things with you? Why would I, an esteemed Councilman, spend all my precious time with you, a sentry with a bad attitude? Why would I do that?"

"Because you don't actually have anything better to do…?"

"No! I," Kane stepped in front of his desk and leaned on it, his palms digging into the metal. "I need you, Pike. I need someone like you. You're an independent thinker, even a little self-righteous—"

"Sounds just like you," she quipped back.

"Exactly. So what I _don't_ need is you mucking up the place with your brashness and insensitivity just because one guy couldn't play well with others. You may be well-liked by the masses, but there are sharks stalking these waters, waiting for you to mess up. And if you do mess up, there will be nothing I can do to help you."

Finally getting his point across, he could see her pulling in her overbearingness and sober up. "…What do I need to do?"

"Take on these new initiates. Make guards out of them. It's your new responsibility." When he saw her open her mouth to object, he decided to elaborate further. " _Think_ like a leader, Pike. My commander is down doing God knows what and I don't have the time to babysit. You do this, it helps fortify the Guard, you look more like a leader to everyone else, and you'll most likely get the cadets to pledge their allegiance to you. Before you can take over, you'll need some people already on your side."

As much as she hated to admit it, he was completely right. She was absolutely ready to turn down the offer, but once he explained the situation she realized what they were planning would be a huge shift in command. Unfortunately, a lot of their people functioned on loyalty. Who you followed, back-stabbed, and floated changed how people reacted and how they will follow you. If Kane could get her this promotion, she had to do what she could to grab it. So much change needed to happen, and it seemed that only she could do it.

"I'll also be needing you to deliver a sincere apology. I don't know much about Martin, but from reading his profile, he's a guy people listen to." _What? Really?_ "Factory station is the station we have the least influence in. He represents all of them, and they look up to him. Get him and the other two, Coal and Bellamy, to work as a team…It just might be the support you'll need when the time comes."

At her silence, Kane knew she was listening and processing it all. She had slipped her political hat on as soon as he mentioned the cadets' support. He had hoped all of this had already gone through her head, but better late than never.

She agreed with his plan, of course, but it didn't stop her from rolling her eyes as she headed toward the door.

"And Pike, you might wanna freshen up before visiting medical…You look like shit."

* * *

 **Footnotes** **:**

 **1 – I included Stephen King among-st the great authors of the land before A.L.I.E.'s screw up. He is a fantastic writer that, in my opinion, captures so many parts of people—even the disturbing parts. By the time Micah reads his work, it's more than a century later so I say he can be a "great."**

 **2 – Another made up concept of the Ark that I've created. I imagine that medical services such as contraceptives are a privilege on a place like the Ark as it's been nearly a century since it was launched into space. Supplies would have to be running out in other places than just air. So abortions and preventive measures like patches and shots are a special benefit that is not advertised. It's totally up to the Council to decide who gets to have what based on circumstance (and unfortunately, your importance in society). Most females get their tubes tied or surgeries like hysterectomies after giving birth once. This procedure is costly for the woman as she is off her feet for a while (my own mother was down for nearly two months), can't provide for herself nor her family, and don't have access to the resources (like proper food) required to get her in full recovery mode; food is rationed on the Ark and these women would have a hard time getting more nourished (though they're all pretty malnourished to a certain point, I believe). So I imagine that lower class women don't typically flock to this option. It's just assumed that one is 'careful' in the bedroom.**

 **3 – So Micah had an abortion. She was 20 when this happened (she's 22 in this chapter). No one but the medical officer that performed the procedure knows about it. She chose to abort the child, but it's a decision she will agonize over for probably the rest of her life and have mixed feelings about. Sometimes she knows it was the right decision, but other times she'll think the opposite. Experiencing it through the eyes of other people in my life, making such a huge decision never actually settles. By that, I mean you could have an abortion and regret it, or wonder what would've come of that baby, or feel like crap. On the flip side, maybe it was the best thing that could come from the situation at the time and if you had the choice to go back and do it over, you would still chose to abort. It's never a cut-and-dry thing. No matter the choice or the reasons for it, it hurts and scars you in pretty much every way possible.**

 **3 (continued) – Anyway, Micah's views on this subject do not reflect my own. Her beliefs are her own. She had the option of aborting and she took it while Gemma, a lower class woman whom already has a child is given no choice and is pressured to abort the child and choses to try and fight for her child to have a place in the world in spite of. There's a** _ **whole**_ **lot of regret and shame associated with Micah's decision. She second guesses herself and wonders if roles were reversed (her and Gemma), would she still have chosen to abort or would she try to protect it. This is a tough issue, but that doesn't mean it should never be talked about.**


	5. Chapter Four

**Sorry, kind of a short chapter.**

 **Warning: strong language up ahead. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own _The 100_. That's all Jason Rothenberg and Kass Morgan. But I do own Micah, and Martin.**

* * *

 ** _Faya Gada | 4_**

Micah grudgingly took Kane's advice and went back to her room to collect her shower caddie.

When her father had kicked her out, she high-tailed it to the barracks as there was a nicely-made bunk waiting for her. Early the next morning, news had already spread that a girl had slept in the guard barracks. Micah was the second woman to join the Guard, ever, and the first in nearly fifteen years. In that time, it had become custom for the newer guards to eat, shit, and sleep together. No one thought a girl like Micah would've passed initiation, nor that she would last very long in the field. But she proved them wrong.

Which led to the problem that there were no pre-existing rules regarding mixed genders staying in the bunks together. And Micah was the _only_ female in her troupe versus eleven other guys. One could easily imagine how this was problematic.

Once this news traveled to Callie Cartwig, a well-known liaison officer [ **1** ], she was not having it. Micah may have been strong, but she was still young and outnumbered. And based on her first conversation with Micah, it seemed that she forgot that fact a lot.

" _Miss Pike, you're a_ woman. _That's spelling trouble."_

" _They're just a bunch of guys. They know I'm_ clearly _not interested."_

" _Well sadly, those balloons hanging off your chest do enough talking for the both of you. Grab your stuff."_

And she was moved, forcefully, into Callie's apartment [ **2** ]. At first, Micah didn't care all that much. She had been a newly homeless woman and Callie offered her home to her for free; not to mention it was the nicest place she had ever stayed in. She of course helped with the upkeep and food (as Callie seemed to always have some laying around the kitchenette).

Though at one point, Micah became a little uncomfortable. While the older woman had been so kind and patient with her, she was tired of being treated like a little girl. Callie was fantastic, but she still saw Micah—a twenty year old woman—as a naïve teenager with raging hormones because unfortunately the mask Micah often wore around the halls of the Ark went down as soon as she got home.

So Callie saw what others didn't get to. A sensitive girl with an antagonistic temperament. She felt that the whole world was out to get her pretty much all the time, and only ever saw her failings. Such negativity really bothered her roommate, who tried to pull Micah from her slump time and time again. But she knew her help was not at all appreciated, so she stopped.

"What are you doing back so early?"

Micah forgot that today was Callie's day off. But she didn't stop her trek toward the small bathroom. "Ask your boyfriend."

Callie groaned. She knew that as Kane's sort-of student, Micah was bound to figure out something had occurred between her roommate and tutor. "Not my boyfriend."

"Don't give two shits. I'm gonna take a shower."

Micah didn't understand why she had to get all dolled up for some jerk that had disrupted her training session. In fact, the last thing she wanted was to get pretty for an immature pervert. But she had to admit, the shower was much needed for both her hygiene and attitude. Callie noticed and appreciated this, but began to ask questions when she saw the un-brushed hair get plaited into a thick braid.

"Spending your time off by going on a date—" Callie inquired, leaning against the door.

"Like how you secretly meet the councilor on your days off?" Before Callie could deny the claim, Micah stood up and threw on the guard-issued jacket. "Stop prying and I'll stop antagonizing you about it." She checked to make sure her radio and key card were with her before walking out the door. "Don't wait up."

* * *

The medical wing was abuzz with chatter as the medical staff ran around, herding people back toward the door. It was difficult getting around to patients and Jackson knew Abby would not be pleased. This was not the way a health facility was supposed to be ran.

"Ladies, I apologize for sounding like someone who had their windpipe abused. I tried to get the upper hand," the gravelly voice paused, feigning innocence, "…but I was weak."

"And don't forget it," a voice interjected.

Micah tried not to appear so threatening in her walk, but she was failing miserably. Though she wore her mask, one could practically see the irritation rolling off her as she marched to the back of the infirmary.

What Martin had intended to be a way of getting sympathy from his visitors was almost broken as he fought an eye-roll. But he kept the humble expression on his face as he turned to the girl he owed his voice to.

"Huh. Spoken like someone who uses their power to oppress those without," he growled. He could see the disposition of his people changing to become more defensive at his words. He knew he could spin this so that he is the victim. Factory station was notorious for finding things to riot about.

"Sure sounds like you're healing up nicely," she fired back, smirking. She got a glare back.

The walk there, Micah thought of the different ways she could approach this so-called 'apology' she's supposed to be giving. She knew that a simple, 'I'm sorry,' wasn't going to get shit done. This was sort of a good thing as she probably wasn't going to be able to deliver the words; she would be lying if she did.

No, she was going to play him up as the victim he desperately wanted to be. But a victim whose assailant was his own self. Kane had said she would need this man on her side. And whatever the Mighty Kane wanted, he got.

"I guess you're not here to—I don't know— _apologize_?" He may have been trying to sound resentful, which he was, but his voice was barely above a whisper.

"Yes, I am sorry," she started. But when she saw the smirk begin to form on his face, she continued her thought. "…that the Guard failed to convey what kind of military regime we like to keep." She witnessed the smugness wash away from his face as she brought her arms to fold behind herself. Her plan to sweeten him almost felt impossible now that she was facing him; she would surely end up chewing his ass up. Hopefully she could do so while still winning her point man back.

"Normally, new recruits start with moderate session of physical training, which is up to the Commander—whom in this case was not in attendance—before commencing with two months of Guard prep. The point is to observe each initiate for their strengths, weaknesses, etcetera as well as prepare their minds for the coming challenges ahead. Had I realized you already had a lot of these 'combat experiences'," she refrained from calling his fights 'civic disturbances', "under your belt, I'd have had you sit the first session out to not waste your time.

"But Mr. Martin you may speak of having no power, but what you failed to realize was that by taking it upon yourself to fix your boredom, you seized power. Power over that other cadet who was clearly weaker than you. And I know that in the moment, it felt pretty damn good. But mixing that kind of power with a weaker person who—say— _isn't_ training to be in the Guard or will have had a firearm on hand is a very dangerous thing. You may claim that we oppress the lesser half, but what you did was no different."

"So you're saying I deserved this beating?"

With the ten pairs of eyes watching, he was trying to trap her but she knew that. She had actually seen this coming.

"I'm saying my job was— _is_ to assess my troupe's attributes and use that to make fine guards out of them. You're strong, that's evident. But your attitude could use a little adjustment."

At this, she could hear talk around her. They were calling her a self-entitled guard, a hypocrite. Little did they know in her mind she was agreeing with them without shame.

"So what do you say? Will you be joining us tomorrow morning with your attitude 'right'?"

She wasn't able to read his icy blue eyes. They seemed to be trying to stab right into her, but were also drawn to what she was saying.

"Only if I get to fuck you up, like you did me." He wanted the words to cut her, but she didn't seem all that fazed.

Every pair of eyes seemed to set themselves on her, waiting to see how she would respond.

"Stick around long enough and you just might get to."

And just like she had anticipated, he took the bait.

The challenge was set and Kane would get his play-maker.

* * *

 **Footnotes** **:**

 **1 – I don't actually know what Callie is an officer of, but I'm going to say she runs in public relations/communications.**

 **2 – Technically, I view all of the living quarters on the Ark as 'apartments'. So that's what I'll call them.**


	6. Chapter Five

**Longer chapter! Hope you like the dash of Bellicah (horrible ship name) fluff at the end of the chapter.**

 **Warning: strong language up ahead. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own _The 100_. That's all Jason Rothenberg and Kass Morgan. But I do own Micah, Coal, Theo, Elliot and Tevin.**

* * *

 ** _Faya Gada | 5_**

Henry Shumway was never one for cheating. In fact, in school he was teased for not allowing his classmates to use his assignments. None were surprised when he decided to have a career in not cheating.

So why did he agree to this secret meeting with the former Chancellor? He surely didn't see why they were meeting in a meat locker used for storage when he had an office. And come to think of it, she had one as well.

Diana Sydney had always seemed like a shady woman from all the times he had spoken with her. She appeared to always be at odds with the opinions of councilmen. Her words were always sweet, but Henry could see the hungry look that showed in her eyes when that Chancellor pin was in her sights. Whatever her reasons for seeking him out, he hoped it didn't make him into a fool. He wanted change, and she had offered that.

"Commander…Were you followed?"

"Of course not. Got my men looping back around to Sector 8. I trust that five minutes is enough time?"

"You are correct. Should be more than enough time. Now, did you have any trouble with my instructions?"

"No. And no one suspects a thing."

"Good. With the election only a few months away, we'll have to act soon if our plan is going to work."

"So what do you propose?"

"I know a guy, he's good at drawing up duplicates. Someone got a hand on a certain someone's paperwork, I'm gonna have him touch some things up for us. So we'll have the upper hand at the next council meeting. What I need you to do is arrest more people."

"More people? My quota's already up by 10. 2 percent of the population has already been floated [ **1** ]."

"I don't want you to float more people. I could care less about what happens to them in the court hearings. Your job is to just put more asses in that confession chair. The more time devoted to these case hearings is time spent away from my other plans."

So he was a distraction? Mortality rate was already pretty high on the Ark, and he didn't want to make it any higher. What he could probably do was send more kids up to the Sky Box. That way he could do what he was asked to while temporarily sparing some lives. But this was still pretty risky.

"I can do that but…could you make it worth my while?"

Henry could see a smile in her eyes, perhaps intrigued that he would ask such a thing. She had already promised him a place among the council once she was Chancellor. What else could he want?

"I'm listening."

* * *

"So when do we get jackets?"

"Theo, is that all you care about?" Coal asked as the seven of them trailed down the hall toward the barracks.

"Johnson," she called him, "I think you meant 'Hemswood'. We use last names in the Guard. I'd like to not remind you again," Micah corrected.

She threw him a look behind her back before flashing her key card in front of the door. Immediately, the many of them raided the drawers to find the chocolate bars. Things like chocolate were an expensive incentive on the Ark, but Micah felt that her boys deserved them. Four months had gone by, and she had not shown any mercy. She felt like it would be a good idea to split the group in two groups of four after four cadets dropped out. She suspected it was due to her rigorous management, but if they couldn't do as they were expected they simply didn't belong there. Anyway, this allowed her room to train them more efficiently. And surprisingly, this lot had held their own and even sometimes exceeded their peers.

Coal Johnson and Theo Hemswood worked very well together, despite one being from factory and the other from Alpha. It helped that Theo didn't occupy the Alpha station archetype other stations depicted as arrogant and self-entitled. He was very humble and patient, which Micah was grateful for as she had been worried about him as well.

Bellamy Blake was very good at listening to commands, but often had trouble deciphering them. This wasn't to say he wasn't a good guard; he was always willing to discuss further how processes worked or where he went wrong. But Micah observed that he was one of the quieter men in the group.

This was the same for Elliot Takada, though it seemed he just didn't have much to say. Being the oldest of the four, it was fitting to name him their leader and he had the qualities for it. He was covertly clever and could reign in his emotions. He also had a friendly and trusting face that seemed very approachable, which would be great when interacting with the Arkers. His willingness to understand and sympathize with all parties was a breath of fresh air. Most guards were more concerned with just following orders, but he took the extra step to verify both information and motive.

"You don't call Tevin by his last name," Theo remarked with a piece of caramel between his teeth. The eighteen-year-old hopped up onto the counter and swung his legs.

"That's because _Inspector Graham_ and I are best friends. And get off the counter, you look like a child." And Micah was right, Theo did look much younger than he was—like he was just starting his 9th year of schooling [ **2** ].

"But he has a point," Coal cut in. "I've overheard you calling the Councilman, Marcus."

Micah rolled her eyes. "If that's an attempt at manipulating me into admitting something that you want to know about, you'll have to try again."

Elliot lightly smacked Theo's leg, urging him to get down before turning to Coal. "In other words, shut up."

Theo laughed with him, dropping from his platform. Bellamy was leaning over the counter on his elbows, chocolate bar in hand. "I heard that you can't lie…" Micah knew he was testing the waters and not just trying to be an ass. "Is that why you won't answer a lot of our questions?" He saw her otherwise stoic mouth twitch in the corner at his challenge like she knew a secret.

"Nah, I simply don't care to share much about myself. By the way, I've _never_ called the Councilman by his first name." She cringed. That would almost be endearing, hence why neither of them had called each other by first names.

"Yeah. Sometimes it's hard to think of him as a person. In factory, we call him and the Chancellor 'Lucifer' and the antichrist."

Micah arched a brow. "If that's what you think of our leadership, why do you wanna be a guard?"

Coal dropped his playful smile and grew serious for what seemed to be the first time.

"There were close-to-no guards from factory and we're the ones who get picked on the most. I guess I thought that if I became a guard, I could show all factions that it doesn't matter where you come from. Anyone can do what they want to help out the Ark, and we can all work together."

Theo crossed his arms. "Is that the same attitude you had when you called me 'hoity toity'?"

"Dude, in my defense your hair was near perfect and you asked for a 'saucer' to put under your cup."

As the two began to argue about their past first impressions of the other, Micah rolled her eyes before asking Theo the same question.

"There are a lot of Alpha guards but they have a thing for abusing their power. Gives us good guys a bad name."

"You guys sound so noble," Elliot cut in. "My parents are chief engineers so everyone expects me to take their place. Been stuck around fans and generators my whole life. Last year, I _really_ got sick of 'em. So I joined because the Guard was my fastest way out."

"Who knew ole quiet Takada was a rebel," Micah smirked. She had been wondering why a guy like him was just now joining the Guard. He was at least two years older than her.

"Not my parents, for sure. They kicked me out [ **3** ]."

Micah smiled fondly. "I remember that being when my life started."

Bellamy remained quiet, mutely munching on his chocolate hoping no one asked for his motivation behind joining the guard. He silently applauded Theo and Coal in the back of his mind for being moral agents. The guard certainly needed more people like them. And not like Bellamy. His sole purpose for joining was to use abuse his power so that he could take care of his mom and Octavia.

"Gosh, look at the time! I should've been in bed half an hour ago!"

"Geez, Teach. You have a bed time?"

"You should too, Johnson. We _all_ have drills to run at 0500 hours."

The men groaned. Bellamy threw away his rapper and stepped toward the door. "Well, I guess I better head home too."

"See ya, Blake," the others called to him, heading to their own beds.

Micah met Bellamy at the door. "You don't sleep here?"

Bellamy opened the door for her, letting her pass through first. "No." When he didn't elaborate on his answer, she gave him a look. "I worry about my mother." _And sister_ , he thought.

"Well aren't you a good little soldier. Helping your mommy." She didn't mean for the words to sound bitter.

Knowing that she didn't live with her parents, Bellamy figured her home life wasn't all that great. _But it's still probably better than mine._

"Daddy issues, in case you were wondering."

"I'm sorry."

The majority of the walk to Micah's apartment was filled with the clink of their boots. "Wish I could help you out, but I never knew my father."

"Be glad you don't know _mine_."

"Mr. Pike?" The teacher was always encouraging and helpful toward all his students. He tried his best to push his passion for farm culture onto them because he truly believed it was really important.

"I mean know him on a personal level. The guy is judgmental as fuck. I couldn't stand him."

"You can now?"

"I'm sorry again. I sometimes have trouble saying what I mean the first time." A piece of hair had fallen out of her neat braid and it began to bother her causing her to scowl. "I meant that I don't see him anymore, so I don't have to be around it. Hence 'couldn't'."

Bellamy was surprised he was having this kind of conversation with this woman, whom never revealed any personal details about her life.

He saw her unravel her hair and watched it fall down her back. Then she pulled it back atop into a messy bun of twisty locks. Bellamy had always seen her as pretty, but there were definitely more attractive women on the Ark. But now, he was suddenly aware of how close they were walking together and he suddenly became aware of the freckles sprinkled across her nose.

When she turned to him, he realized he had been staring. He knew that if he didn't say something, she was going to make this into an awkward situation or worse. _She'll think I'm challenging her_. When he tried to come up with a response, he panicked.

 _Fuck, what were we talking about?_

"Are you alright, Blake? Your face is changing colors."

He honestly couldn't remember what their subject had been about, so he decided to just play it honest. From what he learned about Micah, she was good at detecting lies. Even good ones.

"I just realized you had freckles."

He winced after the words left his mouth. _Don't be_ that _honest, dimwit!_ He thought for sure he would get a slap, at the very least. But he didn't.

When he opened his eyes, he saw that she had stopped walking behind him and had a curious expression. One he hadn't ever seen on her face. The only faces he'd seen was annoyed, disgusted, the occasional smirk, and—her personal favorite—no expression at all. She had a tendency to subconsciously think she knew everything. Curiosity wasn't something that came to her naturally.

"I have freckles?"

Bellamy couldn't stop the grin spreading across his lips. Micah still stood in amazement. When Bellamy arched a brow, she couldn't fight her own smile at his teasing look. Bellamy was almost certain he was the first person to make her smile like that in a long time. But he didn't have time to celebrate.

"…What does _that_ look mean?"

"How can you not know your own face?"

Micah scoffed at how ridiculous she probably seemed. She tried to remain silent, but soon a laugh escaped about the same time Bellamy's had.

"I know it sounds really bad," the two continued to laugh before it slowly died down. "I never really look at myself. Like in the mirror."

She sounded almost sheepish in her answer and she straightened her back, trying to come back from sharing something so peculiar about herself. But now Bellamy could see the twenty-two year-old girl that she was, and not the cold soldier.

"Anyway, they're probably atrocious," she remarked, letting her mask slip back on.

Bellamy frowned at this. He remembered his own sister having similar things to say about her own freckles. "Don't say that. They help make you Micah." Oddly enough, she didn't correct him like he thought she would. "And I happen to like them."

When Bellamy saw her mouth move, he almost rejoiced but she had stopped at a twitch. "Says the King of Freckles."

Before either of them could say anything else, they heard footsteps falling beside them. A guard swept past them, almost shouldering Bellamy.

"Get a room, you two."

After that moment, they hadn't said another word to each other but Bellamy could feel heat on his cheeks.

* * *

 **Footnotes** **:**

 **1 – Totally made this statistic up. Means that Shumway has arrested ten people more than his normal 'quota' he has set. He's at like fifty people for the year, so it's safe to say a lot of people hate this guy.**

 **2 – The Ark uses something similar to the American public school system. Kind of. There are twelve grades, but kids start a year earlier (so 5-6). And only ten grades are mandatory. Around 11** **th** **grade, the kids get to decide whether or not they finish school or do something else (like work or do special studies). There is the option to stay in school, but only concentrate on studies that benefit your future career (i.e. Ag kids would focus more on Earth Skills, botany, irrigation). In Micah's case, she finished school but also started training for the Guard at the age of 15 alongside Tevin. A lot of the poorer kids may choose to just drop out and go work with their parents (factory or whatever).**

 **3 – I'd like to mention that in my depiction of the Ark, people stay with their families until they get married or start a family or something (unless you live in Alpha where special privileges are given). It's not uncommon for thirty-year-olds to still be living with their parents. Not only is there limited space on the Ark, but there are strict regulations on living standards that would be a bitch to have to worry about as a new 'homeowner'. In Elliot's case, his parents were able to throw him out because they know he's a cadet and would be able to just live in the barracks. Micah's father kicking her out was more a brash decision that he regrets. Pike wants her to come back home now that she isn't a cadet anymore, but she has found a place with Callie. Since they live in Alpha and both are prominent citizens, they are able to legally do so without much trouble. Plus, Micah doesn't want to go back home.**


	7. Chapter Six

**A/N: I made a minor mistake in the last chapter. I mentioned at the beginning of the second scene that there were seven of them together, but there were actually only five (Micah, Coal, Theo, Elliot, and Bellamy).**

 **Also, as you've noticed, I sometimes interchange people's first and last names. I don't mean to do this, but it happens. Hopefully no one is confused when this happens.**

 **Warning: strong language and adult situations up ahead. Hopefully, not to graphic for some of you. Anyway, enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own _The 100_. That's all Jason Rothenberg and Kass Morgan. But I do own Micah Pike, Coal Johnson, Theo Hemswood, Elliot Takada, Cliff Martin, Jonas Asher, Sahib Hakim, and Harris Ryder.**

* * *

 _ **Faya Gada | 6**_

After that incident, Micah found herself glancing at Bellamy on more than one occasion whenever they were in the same room. She wasn't sure why, but she felt like she won something whenever she caught him looking at her as well. Neither of them mentioned the interaction that had occurred just days before, but somehow all of Bellamy's had figured out that something had happened. Elliot was the first to bring it up when he saw Micah smile at Bellamy's back during one of their sparring matches. When he was able to throw Bellamy onto his back much easier than usual, he pulled Blake aside to give him some advice.

"Dude, I know she's really hot and you dig her." Bellamy looked at him with crazy eyes. "Yes, I know. It's really obvious you're into each other. Just fare warning: she's committed to the job. If you're going to make a move, it better be sooner rather than later." Once he had snapped out of his shock, patted him on the back of his neck. "Also, don't let it get to you on the job. They demote guys for stuff like that."

Bellamy took Elliot's words to heart and got back to work. He stopped pulling his punches (not that he got very many in in the first place) on Takada and only looked at Micah when she was addressing him. He knew that it may look like he was avoiding her in those dark eyes, but he could make up for that later. His first priority was to become a guard. He shouldn't let himself get too sidetracked by making googly eyes.

"All right, guys! We're done for the day. The second group should be coming through in about five minutes."

The lieutenant commander threw a dirty towel around her shoulders and padded away some of her sweat. At the news, Theo dropped backwards onto the mat.

"Thank God!" he groaned. "I don't think my butt can take anymore whooping."

Coal kicked his foot. "You know she's gonna come over here and mess with you if you stay down there."

"Johnson is correct. I may or may not count to—"

The blonde's body shot up from the floor and scrambled to the other side of the room. Bellamy smiled at the childish antic but it was broken when Takada came into view. He was gesturing with his head toward their commanding officer who was greeting the other four cadets as soon as they stepped inside the chamber. It was obvious that Martin was doing his best to flirt with her. It was curious as she put him on his ass on more than one occasion. His partner-in-crime, Hakim, dutifully stepped forward to ask her a question. The other two, Asher and Ryder, were encouraging Martin by giving him hand signals.

Bellamy felt something tap his shoulder before he heard a whisper, "You should get in there."

His eye twitched at the chance but was afraid for some reason. Despite what Takada thought, Bellamy wasn't in the business of wooing females. And he didn't have a crush on Pike. His life was stressful and complicated enough without the prospect of bringing another person in on his family's delicate situation. The last relationship he had been in ended when he was 18. He realized he didn't care for the girl as much as she may have cared for him; and she began to grow curious of his home life. She soon found herself dumped like a hot potato.

The reason being his family. Though his mother was, for lack of a better phrase, 'taking care of her own business,' Bellamy was the man of his house. He needed to step up and support his family the best he could. That was why he wanted to get closer to Micah. It wouldn't hurt to win some brownie points with his commanding officer. If she could put in a good word when the Dubbing Ceremony [ **1** ] came about, he would have all the intel he needed to hide O.

"Nah, she seems busy."

"Yeah, with her least favorite people."

Just then the door slid open a second time as a stony figure stepped through. The side-shaved head and hard eyes made Micah grimace.

 _What the hell is he doing here?_ "Shumway…Where you been? It's like I'm seeing a ghost right now." _Not that I really care._

"Yes…I've been very busy. Clearance level 5 so…I can't tell you much about it," Micah almost rolled her eyes at this. He knew he just threw that in to irritate her. She could care less about his stupid clearance levels. "I heard you've been playing commander?"

This time she didn't hesitate cut her eyes at him. "'Playing Commander'?" She threw around air quotes. "I'm sorry, Commander, but you haven't been around."

"Then let me formally extend my apologies, Lieutenant Commander. I'm sorry if my absence has placed a strain on your already hefty obligations to the Councilman."

Micah crossed her arms as she stared him down. The cadets didn't know how to decipher Shumway's over-the-top polite rhetoric. He totally just called her Kane's bitch.

"Apology not required nor accepted." If she leaned forward just a bit more, she could slap the smirk right off his face. "Why are you here?"

"I'm now in charge of training group two."

"…What?"

"Oh, you weren't informed?"

"Commander, I've been putting my blood and sweat into these cadets for the past four months—literally. What kind of backwards-thinking idiot thought having you do your job for once would be a good idea?"

By now, she had lost the nerve and was done making niceties. _What is this fucker trying to do?_

Shumway ignored the insult, smirk never leaving his face. "Pike, I thank you for your diligent work. You've been a good soldier. And once my latest project has been revealed, it will make up for my recent transgressions. Now step aside, _little girl_. I must get started. They'll have to unlearn everything you've taught them."

Shumway had made his way over to Asher, as he stood the furthest from the group. "Cadet, why don't you show me what atrocities she's shown you thus far."

Anyone could see the steam collecting in her eyes. This was Bellamy's chance. He made it over to her before she could blurt anything out that she would regret. "Pike? Maybe we should get you some air?"

At first, Bellamy thought she hadn't heard him when she continued to stare after Shumway. But she took a deep breath and stalked out the door. Bellamy did his best to keep up with her, but she was really good at speed walking. Then abruptly, they were stopped in front of a corridor on Mecha station. _When did we get here so quickly_ , Bellamy wondered.

After she keys in her card, he saw what was in the room. Just dusty, old machinery and overly used tools. Bellamy's guess what that this room was used as some kind of storage for the broken-down equipment the mechanics couldn't be bothered with using. The sound of scratchy Velcro brought him back to attention. Micah had taken off her guard jacket and was wrapping her braid around into a bun.

Bellamy couldn't see an immediate reason for why they were in this room. Or why she was taking off her clothes. And he wasn't bothered enough to look away.

The top was coming off next. Oh, dear.

He was still confused until he saw her approach a hanging bar lodged up on one of the walls. It was suspended at least six feet above his head. _How the hell is she gonna get up there?_

When she started climbing some of the metal boxes close by, he began to panic. "Um, seriously. What are you doing? Trying to get yourself killed?" She arched her back atop the last one and vaulted herself toward the bar, catching it even with her sweaty palms. "Pike. Pike!"

"Blake? You followed me?" Bellamy ran to stand under her and grabbed her legs. "What the hell are you doing? Let me go."

"Would you, just, _please_ come down?"

"Ugh, I do this all the time. Nothing to worry about."

"Doesn't stop me from worrying."

She rolled her eyes, annoyed with his unwanted assistance. Why should she care if he was feeling a certain way? She needed to blow off some steam. What better way than with good, old-fashioned pull ups? It wasn't high enough that she would break something. But if she wasn't careful, she could land the wrong way.

"I'm upset, okay? This is the only way to quell my anger. Now get the fuck off me."

"Not letting go until you come down."

She figured listening would be a quicker way to get rid of him. He let her slide along down his body until her boots hit the ground and her arms were wrapped tightly around his shoulders. She felt his warm breath hit neck as he whispered, "Was that so hard?"

A familiar ache formed under her belly and she inwardly groaned. Of course her body was turned on. It was pressed against another hot body and she happened to only be wearing her pants and sports bra. It didn't help that she could feel his own arousal poking her stomach. It was becoming hard to control her breathing.

His freckles seemed to be laughing at her as the rest of her body caught up with the awakening her female parts were experiencing. If she didn't push him away, she may regret it. But fuck, it had been so long. And when he licked his lips…

When she flicked her eyes back up his face, she saw her ache behind his own eyes. They both wanted each other. Or rather, _it_. With someone.

And that was all she needed. Her voice strained.

"Blake, just kiss me."

* * *

"…So are we gonna talk about what just happened?"

Micah scoffed as she buttoned up her pants. "If I wanted to sit around and have someone braid my hair, I'd have sulked to the commons to get drunk off my ass and tell you my life story."

She reached for her shirt but found it to be sticky in a spot and dropped it back to the ground. Had the encounter not been so impromptu, she could've prepared better. With nothing else in reach but their clothes, Micah had hastily grabbed one of their shirts and let Bellamy finish in it. If only she'd realized it was hers.

Bellamy paused in replacing his shirt atop his head. He had worn his cadet's insulated vest over his shirt and under his uniform. "Just take mine." He watched her folded it out before throwing it over her head while he worked to pull his arm through his vest.

Even though their romp had been rushed and to-the-point, Micah had thrown off his top garments so she could run her hands over his newly-toned flesh. The feel of her near naked body against his chest left him finishing sooner than he had anticipated. But he didn't think Micah minded. She had released hastily herself.

"Thanks for the shirt. I'll return it tomorrow at breakfast." And she walked out.

Fucking her hadn't been a part of the plan. But this worked too. If Bellamy didn't have any brownie points before, he certainly did now.

* * *

 **Footnotes** **:**

 **1 – Dubbing Ceremony is pretty much what it sounds like. The Cadets will be evaluated based on physical skill, knowledge, and works. Each will be interviewed to determine where they will serve. There's Inspection, Hazards (fire, accidents, etc.), General Services, Workforce, and Building & Safety—to name a few. Certain positions fill up more quickly than others (higher positions like Inspection).**


	8. Chapter Seven

**I didn't expect so many people to be checking out this story. So I thank you all for looking at it, even if you don't even read it (haha). And minstorai, you've been awesome with your reviews. Really helps to know what someone thinks. It gives me more motivation. Anyway, it's been kind of hard to write lately since I'm literally at the end of my semester and Finals week is finally here. But I didn't want to delay so I pushed. As a consequence, this chapter is short and like 70% dialogue, but I'll make up for that next chapter.**

 **Also, I've mapped out the next few chapters and Micah won't be leaving the Ark until after Chapter Ten. Just thought I'd mention that for you Grounder readers.**

 **Recap: Bellicah got it on! ...But it was purely physical. Oh, well. Beggars can't be choosers. Also, Micah no longer trains the second group of cadets. Shumway has suddenly come back into the picture after 'finishing' a project. What is this project he was working on? And let's not forget he's conspiring with Diana Sydney.**

 **Warning: strong language and adult themes ahead.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own _The 100_. That's all Jason Rothenberg and Kass Morgan. But I do own Micah and Daryl.**

* * *

 ** _Faya Gada | 7_**

The following weeks had Bellamy anxious all the time.

Things in the Guard got tense as Shumway asserted his rank over Micah whatever chance he got. The two began combining their drilling sessions to bring the groups back together. Shumway would find some way to mention her smallness (not that Bellamy agreed after seeing her body) and she would insult his masculinity. It would've been amusing if he and the other cadets weren't so caught in the middle. Even Martin and Hakim, whom flirted and irritated her, felt like they were betraying their former commanding officer by obeying the Commander's demands.

But Bellamy couldn't say he felt all that bad about the turn of events. The more intense the argument, the more intense his couplings with Micah were. They continued their private activities, though Micah was the initiator. It got to the point that she would grabbed his wrist and drag him to room where they first shared time together and rip his clothes off. It was always fast and Bellamy was gratuitous, on his part. The happier he made her, the less torture his troupe had to go through. A pissy Pike did not make good decisions [ **1** ].

Bellamy had to stop himself from thinking about what he was doing with Micah. Aside from the fact that he was getting laid, he thought of the other details of their relationship. She was essentially his boss and he was using her. Granted, she was definitely using him as well, but it didn't make him feel any better about it. He was reassured in his quest when she let it slip that the Guard would be revamping public spot checks at certain functions. This was just the kind of information that brought him to doing this, warming the bed of someone he was not romantically involved with.

* * *

The tanned man grabbed the potato stew that was presented to him and made his way to the noisy common areas, scanning for a table. He mostly saw families with their children and rowdy teenagers. A boy was about to spill his soup down another girl's shirt but he stopped with his eyes wide. He quickly picked up his things and left toward the mess corner.

Bellamy raised a brow at the spectacle until he caught the woman that plagued his conscience. She was sitting at a table adjacent to the scurrying boy, her arched back facing the Blake. Without even thinking about it, he placed his tray in front of her.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

Bellamy noticed that whenever he was with Micah in an informal setting, her language became very colorful. Now he could've taken her expression as hostility, but she was still calmly nibbling on one of the pieces of potato from her bowl.

So instead of answering her, he slid his leg between the seat and table before taking a spoonful of the bland stew as if he hadn't heard her. Her hand stopped, clenching around her spoon. From the corner of his eye, she seemed a bit confused.

"I asked you a question, Blake."

He continued eating his food, pretending to be absorbed by it. She sighed and went back to playing with her food until a dark shadow cast over his head.

"Better listen to her. She's doesn't like when people don't listen to her."

He couldn't tell if the voice was menacing or simply teasing. Looking at Micah's face, it was probably the first one. When her body tensed, he involuntarily placed his hand on her knee underneath the table. He'd never seen her openly get upset over something in public—though he wasn't stalking her so maybe it was a possibility.

"Excuse me, sir. You're in my bubble."

Bellamy had finally turned his body to face Micah, and could see a slightly older man hunching over her shoulder. His curly, black hair coiled against his forehead.

"Oh, am I breaking some kind of law by standing here?"

"I'll break your arm if you don't step away from me."

Micah's voice was icy; possibly the iciest he'd heard ever.

"Like when you broke Luka's arm, huh?"

The knee he had been touching disappearing from under Bellamy's hand and a blink later, he was hearing gasps from all around him. Micah had shoved the man toward the ground like a child bullying another while the man kept jeering at her. Bellamy couldn't be sure of who was doing the bullying here.

"I said to step away from me."

Bellamy stepped away from his seat and gripped the back of Micah's elbow while using his other arm to shield her. Her breathing was labored and he could feel the muscles in her arm flexing. He didn't know who this man was, but it was evident that he was not on Micah's good side.

"What are you waiting for, Mike [ **2** ]? Aren't you gonna assert your authority over me now? I know you like to get what you want!"

Albeit enraged, Micah didn't make a move. Angry tears threatened to form, but they didn't get much traction.

"Ah, the great lieutenant is gonna cry now. That's priceless." The man pulled himself up from the ground, holding eyes with Micah. "Hell must be freezing over you cold. Bitch—"

Before he could finish his statement, there was a sound of bone hitting bone and the man hit the ground. "Bellamy!" Bellamy wasn't sure of who had spoken. He stood over the man spitting out a small amount of blood on the ground beside him. On closer inspection, he could see that the man's eyes were a bit unfocused. Like he was intoxicated.

"Sir, you are way out of line."

" _Sir, you are way out of line_ ," he mocked with a smile. "Really, Mike? You've got this dipshit fighting your battles now?"

Bellamy motioned to the newly arrived peacekeeping guards in the doorway. "He's causing a disturbance, officers." As the two worked to detain the man Bellamy stepped in front of Micah, blocking her view of her verbal attacker.

"Pike," Bellamy sounded in her ear. "Let's just go."

He tugged her arm which she yanked back. Stone-faced, she turned her heel to leave but her tormentor wasn't done.

"Yeah, run off like the coward you are."

The girl stopped in her tracks, her blood boiling and anger turned to frustration. She turned around and pushed past Blake, marching up to the cuffed bastard. And she let her face get close to his.

"What the hell do you want from me, Daryl?!"

He seemed to sober up when answering her, his voice dropping in gravity. "You dead."

Micah's glossy eyes turned hard. "Not if you're dead first."

* * *

Henry stopped in front of the metal door, mentally preparing himself for the inevitable before knocking.

"Come in."

He heard the door sliding open followed by the scraping of a chair. It usually sat facing the workstation, but it was pressed against the adjacent while next to another one.

"If you could have a seat…"

"I'd like to remain standing, if it's all the same to you, sir."

When Marcus Kane had sent for Henry, he had hoped the two could get on the same page and possibly on the same team. The commander had become an aloof individual which Kane found to be very dangerous. He knew Henry's gift of espionage, of secrets. If secrets were being held against the councilman, he had no way of shielding against the repercussions. Which is why he had to sit his commanding officer down, one-on-one, to and get to the bottom of things.

Kane shut the door and walked over to one of the chairs.

"I know I said this would be quick, but that may have been a lie."

He watched for Shumway's reaction, but he portrayed no emotion at the statement. Kane thought Henry would've been put-out by the news, even a little nervous. It _was_ him that had been avoiding their encounter. When he didn't respond, Kane sighed.

Maybe being curt would move things along.

"Henry, what have you been doing these past months?"

Shumway's lip twitched at the question, as if he knew something Kane didn't. Henry knew Kane was going to ask about his investigations, but he knew this would actually be the shortest meeting they ever had. And he was grateful for this. He just got some new evidence that would surely wrap up his investigation and bring his plan to fruition.

"I've been trying to close a case."

The lack of detail made Kane cross his arms. "And?"

"Sir?"

"Don't be coy, now, Shumway. What case are you working on?"

"That's classified, sir."

Marcus raised his brow. He was a councilman. Did he not have access to all clearance levels?

"What I mean is…this case may hit a little…close to home, for you. I've consulted the Chancellor on the matter. He agreed that we should just keep the details between the two of us and my assisting lieutenants."

Jaha was in on this? What the hell could they be working on?

"If you question—"

Kane shot up from his seat, slightly aggravated and offended. "I'll speak with Jaha. But you better be in a place where I can find you when I get back, soldier."

* * *

 **Footnotes** **:**

 **1 – Small jab at Charles Pike…Hate that guy…**

 **2 – Her name's obviously not "Mike". This is one of her nicknames. It's pronounced like "Mike" so I left the spelling.**


	9. Chapter Eight

**Can't believe I'm already on chapter eight. I never get very far with any story I write. I always have tons of ideas but never actually take the time to compose the story. And now school is out, so I should be taking more time to write this mug. Let's hope I keep it up!**

 **Recap: Kane tried confronting Shumway about his suspicious behavior, but Jaha has supposedly forbidden Shumway from including Kane. Also, Micah was verbally harassed. Who is Daryl? And why does he want Micah dead?**

 **Someday, we'll find out. But right now, it's Unity Day! And enjoy the much longer chapters to come.**

 **Warning: strong language, adult themes, and slight homophobic rhetoric [4] ahead.**

* * *

 ** _Faya Gada | 8_**

Micah marched into the gun locker [ **1** ], her hands locked into her hair. She could hear the jeering of her fellow guards as she hastily finished braiding her hair. Everyone was in attendance, and decked out in the appropriate gear. Even the cadets were ready to go. She ignored the unwanted attention and preceded to her compartment.

"Damn, Pike," smiled the bald man next to her. "Dragging in all late like." When she continued going through her things, it didn't seem like she heard him. " _Good afternoon to you too, Tevin."_

Micah paused her rummaging, internally berating herself for neglecting the man. She slowly turned to him, while shoving the guard pants over her own. "…Hi, Tevin."

He pretended to look around before widening his eyes. "Oh, _hey person-I-haven't-seen-in-weeks._ "

This wasn't the first time Micah had forgotten about her friend. Easily, she got distracted by guard work and her own hostile feelings. The first time Tevin realized his best friend wouldn't always be there to act like his best friend was three weeks after their Dubbing Ceremony. It had been understandable that violent crime and inspection were in completely different departments, and the two former cadets would be seeing less of one another. But meals were an easy way of remedying this. Only thing is Micah had caught the attention of Councilman Kane and began sharing all of her meals with him.

And Tevin already knew she was an opportunist before he let himself feel rejected about missing their meals. Micah may have gone through guard training to help Tevin pursue his dream of following his father, but it was obvious she had finally found her calling of leadership and protecting people. He made a promise not to let his pride and envy get in the way of supporting her purpose.

"Tevin, I'm _really_ sorry about these last few weeks. Things have been a little crazy... _I've_ been a little crazy…"

The bald man nodded while shrugging his shoulders. "It's been known to occur."

Bellamy was silently watching the two from across the room. He could see the tension rolling off of Micah's shoulders as she talked to that Inspector Graham. What usually took him at least ten minutes, Graham could accomplish with just a phrase. It definitely couldn't be called jealousy, but Bellamy felt inferior and like the tool he sometimes forgot himself to be.

"So I kind of apologized and stuff-like you tell me to." She crossed her arms over her chest and pointedly looked up at her friend, looking slightly uncomfortable. "Am I your best friend again?"

A buzzer sounded off and someone opened up the entrance of the gun locker. The guard began to line up in two double-file lines. Micah cursed as she quickly grabbed her Guard's jacket then checked her holster for her gun. When she realized she had forgotten it, she stalked over to one of the gun racks before taking her assigned weapon in her hands. She pointed it out and downward, pressing the magazine release and removing it with her other hand to open the slide[ **2** ].

Where the hell was her ammo?

She thought about filing a complaint and replacing the bullets but realized the group couldn't leave without her and she was taking up enough time as it was.

"Pike, you good to go?" one of the lieutenants called out from the front of the line.

After debating for another ten seconds, Micah decided she didn't have the time to reload her weapon and looked at her spare firearm. It was newer than the other one and she hadn't really practiced with it in a while, but this was going to be a celebration. She doubted she would actually need the revolver; it would be for show.

"Coming!"

Ironically after shoving the weapon into her holster, the only spot left in line was next to the person she was trying to avoid.

"You good?"

Micah sighed and screwed her eyes shut at his question. She was not ready to patrol with this guy for four hours straight. Even though he knew she didn't want to talk to him, he still spoke to her and tried to ask about her _feelings_ and shit. Eww.

"Seriously, Blake. I need this day to go by a lot faster than it actually will. So do me a favor and just stand there looking pretty, and we may not have a problem."

* * *

Bellamy needed to read a book on female mentality or something. He just decided everything he thought he knew about women was crap. He had thought he was good at reading certain people, but he couldn't figure out why Micah was being so sore all of a sudden. He had hoped to talk to her about the Dubbing Ceremony so she could help get his foot in the inspection door. But after their run-in with that Daryl guy, she had grown distant. And by distant, he meant cold-as in the _bed_ had gone cold.

At first he thought that maybe she was getting bored with whatever it was they were doing, but he noticed her staring into space sometimes and keeping conversations pretty short. That couldn't be due to them.

Now he needed to figure out why she wouldn't even look at him. Sure, they were in public now. But no one knew what happened behind closed doors. They only knew her as his commanding officer. She kind of _has_ to talk to him to give out orders.

He glanced at Micah and watched her cross her arms over her chest. She was surveying the room of Ark residents. Some of the women had their hair pulled up nicely, and dresses were a common fashion at this time. A few Arkers bore the colors of their stations. Bellamy could pick out the sea of black in a far back corner. He silently wondered if his mother was over there or if she stayed home with his sister.

Micah was multitasking. She ended up having to watch three other pairs of guard to be sure they were following procedure while keeping a look-out for any troublemakers in the crowd. She also wanted to find her family. One thing she did not need today, aside from Blake's presence, was running into her father. This was one of his favorite holidays and would surely use that to coax her back into his arms.

When Bellamy spotted one of his old teachers, he knew he had found the perfect excuse to start a conversation with her.

"Isn't that your dad?" He indicated with a nod of his head as she whipped her head in the direction.

Shit, he was moving toward them.

"Uh…" Micah turned to see if she could spot a vacant spot where her and Bellamy could stand guard without being irresponsible, but most of the exits were covered. She reached her hand behind her to touch Blake's arm, but he was already preoccupied.

"Mr. Pike, sir." Micah dropped her arm and continued to face her current direction. She would not turn around.

"Bellamy Blake?" Pike's eyes widened in surprise. "You're a guard now?"

"Oh no, sir," he pushed his hand out to shake the man's hand, "still a cadet. Your-uh, daughter is my SO."

Bellamy didn't mean to insert Micah directly into the conversation, but it seemed like the thing to do. His former teacher's face lit up at the mention of her.

"Really, now? My Mikey is _training_ you bastards now?" Charles held the look of a proud and distraught father. Like he just learned his child is doing something amazing, but didn't want them growing up just yet. "She is something else…"

"She's something else, alright. Real hard-headed and mean. But she's fair and gets the job done."

Pike seemed to take the information in reverence. "That's great. I wish I could be around to see the things you're saying...but I suppose she's her own person now."

That's mildly putting it, Bellamy thought. He smiled and pretended to have just spotted the object of their conversation. "Oh, you're probably here to speak with your daughter." He put his hand on her bicep to 'get her attention' and watched her stony face turn to them. She was, without a doubt, biting her tongue at that very moment.

"I'll leave you guys to it."

As he took a step back, Charles examined his daughter. Her hair was longer-a few inches past her shoulders-and in a long braid. Her face was slightly more mature and she definitely wasn't the same scrawny little girl he raised. She gained a lot of muscle and filled out more healthily. Though she still only reached his shoulders. The tight lip she was sporting didn't really faze him. When she had still lived with him, that seemed to have been her resting face.

"You look good-"

"Where's mother?"

Charles had expected this kind of defiance from her and only kept his eyes on her. He missed his Mikey, dammit, and they were gonna have to make up.

"Visiting on the other side of the room. Micah, I'm really happy to see you…" She rolled her eyes and looked around him and not at him. "What's it been? Four years?"

"Three."

He was not going to let her deter him. "But it felt like four for us, for me...Mikey, I just want to say that I'm sorry-"

"You're _sorry_?"

"Yes, I'm sorry for the way I acted. But you have to understand that as a father-"

"You can't stand the idea of having a 'harlot' for a daughter? No, I get it."

"Micah, that's not what I'm saying."

"Then what _are_ you saying?"

"I'm saying it's Unity Day...and I want my daughter back."

Micah has practiced her bitch face for nearly her whole life. But she could feel the walls cracking at her father's resolve. He wanted her back. He hadn't said a single word to her in those three years. And now she knows he wanted her back. But then she remembered this wasn't supposed to be a social hour. She was on the clock, Bellamy could probably hear everything they were saying, and she wasn't ready to forgive Charles Pike for throwing her out.

"Well I think it's only fair that you know your daughter is still the harlot she was three years ago."

Charles tried not to let the worry in his face show, but it was kind of hard with the type of statement she just made. And he changed from reconciling man to judgemental parent very quickly.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Micah let a smirk creep on her lips. "Oh, you know 'what the hell' that means. 'Guess that means your daughter is incapable of learning from her mistakes."

All she got out of him was a 'who' before stalking back toward one of the exits, deciding to check up on one of her cadets. Someone bumped into her. Hard.

"Excuse me, ma'am."

"Yes, excuse you."

Bellamy almost felt embarrassed at her rudeness and saw her walk up to Elliot and his assigned partner, throwing herself back into work. Bellamy awkwardly coughed before trying to follow after her. But she caught him and stopped him in his tracks.

"Blake, I _really_ don't need any of your sass right now."

"I was just going to-"

"I don't care. I don't need 'support' from a fuckbuddy right now. I'm gonna go get some air."

And she stalked off into the crowd until he couldn't see her anymore. Elliot seemed to hear the exchange and slapped Bellamy on the shoulder. "What did I tell you?"

Blake sighed and went to respond.

 _Bang! Bang!_

Someone had opened fire. And now people were screaming. Smoke was now filling the room. One of the bullets must've caught a pipe.

Bellamy felt someone push him against another in attempts to escape the space as other people were doing. From the other side of the room, it sounded like a voice had called out 'blood'. Him and Takada made eye contact before breaking it to secure their exits. Bellamy didn't have one so he stood next to Elliot to stand in front of the keypad for the door, locking his key inside to force the doors to shut. Takada stood firmly in front of the door as his partner, as seasoned guard pushed forward and pulled out his weapon. He didn't aim it at anyone but pointed his gun off to the side and toward the ground.

"Everyone get on the ground! Get on the ground, now!"

Other guards around the room could be heard screaming the same thing. The crowd seemed to understand quickly that their safety was in dropping to the ground, hands over their heads. A small group of people remained above the ground, crouching over a whaling pedestrian. Takada's partner, Romero, turned to Bellamy.

"Go assist. We got this."

Hand on his side gun Bellamy walked forward, stepping over the limbs of Arkers. He could see a small pool of blood the closer he got to the group. Before he got there, he heard someone call his name.

"Martin, Blake, secure those people."

Kane had shown up from nowhere, it seemed, barking orders. But the two followed through, forcing the bystanders to the ground, promising the injured party would be taken care of. Shumway came running through followed by a medical practitioner who happened to be there. They went to work assessing injuries and stopping the blood flow. It seemed that there was only one victim. Before he could see who it was, Kane came up to Bellamy, eyes blazing.

"Where the _hell_ is Pike?"

He knew he couldn't answer that question, but wondered why it was such a big deal. That is, until he saw the victim and overheard Shumway speaking into his radio.

"Civilian down. I repeat, civilian down. Medical support needed ASAP. Outpatient ID'd as Daryl Simmons. I repeat, outpatient is Daryl Simmons." Bellamy's face paled at the next mention. "If anyone gets eyes on Lieutenant Commander Pike, bring her in. I repeat, bring Pike in."

* * *

"Mr. Simmons," Abby Griffin spoke softly, "Commander Shumway is here to ask you some questions. Are you up for it?"

Daryl groggily nodded his head, 'yes'. Dr. Griffin turned and gave Shumway a warning look.

"Keep in mind, he went through a lot today. You'll keep your questions appropriate. Is that clear?"

Henry fought a groan and gave her a curt nod. "Yes, ma'am. I'll try not to be long."

As she stalked away, Henry held out his hand. "Mr. Simmons, my name is Henry Shumway. Please just call me Commander." Daryl shook his hand tentatively. "I believe you went through a horrible ordeal today. Am I correct?" Daryl nodded. "Well, if you'll grant me your full cooperation, we can figure out why this happened to you."

"I already know why this happened to me."

Shumway did his best not to smirk at this. He had hoped this guy would already be drawing his own conclusions about what happened. "Oh? Hopefully, we're on the same page. But why don't we start from the beginning? How do you know Micah Pike?"

Daryl's eyes got hard and he clenched his fist. "Isn't that bitch lieutenant commander now, or some made up shit like that?[ **3** ]"

The Commander really wanted to pat this guy on the back for his contempt toward Pike, but he had to remain professional. "Mr. Simmons, if you would refrain from using coarse language." Daryl rolled his eyes, and Shumway could tell the man didn't like being told what to do. "How exactly do you know Ms. Pike?"

"We dated." When Henry didn't say anything, he elaborated. "Three years ago. We were cadets together and we hit it off. Became an 'item'," he had to force the word out.

"Can I ask why you never finished your guard training?"

"She ruined my life." Daryl seemed to be looking into space now. His eyes appeared a bit glossy. "Got someone I cared about in trouble. She turned a blind eye. Let them be floated."

Jackpot.

"What do you mean by 'let them be floated'. If they committed a crime, the punishment is-"

"But there was never any proof. The guard was a lot less organized back then and well...that bitch _knew._ She knew that the evidence got it all wrong. I begged her to help us. But you know what she told me? 'You and Bailey can go float yourselves.'"

Henry would finally bring Micah Pike down.

* * *

After storming out of the celebration hall, Micah had gone to the ladies room. She hadn't realized how upset her meeting with her father had made her until she saw the seemingly permanent scowl in the mirror. When she tried to drop it, her mouth barely flinched. She had to use her fingers to force back her bitch face.

Before she could even begin to think of her anger toward Blake, she almost scratched herself as her radio crackled.

" _Civilian down. I repeat, civilian down. Medical support needed ASAP. Outpatient ID'd as Daryl Simmons. I repeat, outpatient is Daryl Simmons...If anyone gets eyes on Lieutenant Commander Pike, bring her in. I repeat, bring Pike in_."

What?!

Not looking forward to making a fuss in public, Micah raced out of the bathroom and high-tailed it to Alpha Station. No doubt, there would be no guards left as Alpha needed the least protection of the stations. Once she reached her destination, she brought her radio to her lips after changing the channel.

" _Pike, here_."

She got an immediate response.

" _What the hell, Pike? Where are you_?"

" _I'm in your office."_

" _Why is that?"_

" _Because I'm sure there are a bunch of trigger happy guardsmen out there looking for my curly ass. No thanks. I heard the message over my radio. I'll patiently wait here for you to explain to me what the fuck is going on."_

" _That was a dangerous move. It could be seen as evading authorities-"_

" _You know where I am Kane. Just come fucking get me."_

It wasn't even five minutes when Kane came marching through his office with two other security details on his heels. When he saw the men move toward Micah, he moved a hand out. Before ordering her to sit with a finger pointed in her face. Annoyed, she dropped into her usual seat. It made her feel like a little girl again, getting sent to the dean's office for something she probably did.

"You wanna tell me what's going on before Shumway runs an APB on me?"

She felt it odd that he didn't have the guards wait outside the door while they talked.

Kane pulled his hands behind his back as he tried to examine this woman. She didn't show any signs of guilt that he could see. If anything, she was beyond pissed. But knowing Micah, it was probably for an infinite number of reasons that had nothing to do with what just happened.

"Where were you fifteen minutes ago?"

"Taking a potty break. Is that a crime now?"

"I would like to proceed without your annoying satire," he quipped back, not breaking eye contact.

This was when Micah realized how serious the situation was, and became alert. She already knew how these things went. The more cooperative she was, the better. Don't hold any information. It wasn't like she _did_ anything, right?

"I went to the girl's restroom, sir."

"Can anyone confirm that?"

"...I don't think so. Can I ask what happened exactly?"

"You're a suspect. Someone attempted to murder Daryl Simmons just before the Unity Day ceremonies could begin. At the time of the crime, you were unaccounted for. Blake couldn't even point me in a direction. And we know you and Simmons have a rough history."

"Excuse me," Micah rebutted. "I have a rough history' with him. Where did you get this information and what proof do you have?"

Kane pointed to one of the guards. He came forward with a plastic bag, emptying a gun onto the table. "A gun? Hey, wait...that's _mine_. What are you doing with my gun?"

"Better question is what were you doing with it?"

"I wasn't doing anything. I picked up another one earlier. It's right…"

When she reached her hand down to grab the spare, her hand met air.

"...It's gone. I-I swear I had it."

"Can anyone confirm that?"

"Well…"

This wasn't looking good. When Micah came to the gun locker, everyone else was already ready and had lined up with the bell went off. She was the only one near the guns when she switched out for a spare. No one could see her as some regular lockers stood between the door and the guns.

She was screwed.

"Let me guess...the gun was found at the crime scene...with all my prints on it. How hot am I?"

"Pretty damn hot."

"Kane, you don't seriously believe all this? Isn't this all just too strange? Too perfect?"

"Pike, you know evidence doesn't lie." The irony of that statement, Micah thought. "Your gun was found abandoned on the floor of the ceremonial hall with your fingerprints. You leave Blake's sight seconds before 'someone' shot Daryl Simmons in the arm. You have a past history with the guy and I know, for a fact, that you're not a big fan. What else is this supposed to look like?"

"An obvious set up." Kane rubbed his eyes in frustration. He was obviously tired, but Micah didn't care. She did not shoot that dick, and she was not about to go down for the real culprit. "Would I not have _actually_ killed him? You know I'm a dead shot. If I wanted him dead, he would be. Kane, there is a killer out there and we're in here doing what? Wasting time-"

"You understand how this works, Pike. We ask the questions, cover _all_ of our bases. We don't show favoritism-" Micah rolled her eyes. He was not about to lecture her on professionalism. "-I am not about to lecture you. You just need to cooperate, completely, no matter how absurd this may be for you. Because _we_ don't know what really happened. You could've been pretending this whole time-"

" _Pretending this whole time_. Like I'm patient enough for that shit."

Kane gave her a warning look and she wanted to throw him one back. But she needed him if she was going to get out of this mess.

"I'm going to need to ask you about Simmons." Kane saw the look of murder on her face. Perhaps it was the one she used when shooting Daryl. "What was your relationship."

Micah straightened her back and sighed, placing her elbows on her knees. "My boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend. But I loved him."

"You broke up," lowering his voice to make the subject feel a bit more personal for her. Perhaps if she felt like this was just another one of their talks, she would work with them. "What happened between you two?"

"Bailey happened." He could see her mouth quivering. If she didn't hold it together, Kane might actually see her cry. And for the first time. "Bailey Price...I thought they were just friends but…"

Now angry tears were coming up. "I caught them…"

She clenched her fists and closed her eyes to try and stop the salt water. "He was fucking that bitch."

Kane shut his eyes to stop himself from reprimanding her for her language. If this got her to tell the story, then so be it. But he knew she would be angry later for letting this information go to these goons. Kane signaled to the two guards to have them wait outside the door.

"That hurt you."

"It fucking destroyed me."

She was full on crying now. "I loved him and he _said_ that he loved me...Thing is, I don't know what hurt more: that he cheated on me, or that he didn't like pussy."

Kane almost fell out of his seat for a number of reasons. "Wait, what are we talking about?"

"Daryl fucking Simmons let that fucking twat fuck him up the ass. And he had the audacity to tell me he liked it."

 _Oh, Baily Price was a man,_ Kane thought.

"He told me that I was his best friend. That he should be able to tell me anything...Like I would be _understanding_ of my boyfriend's new discovery and be _happy_ for him. Like finding the fucking rainbow was the best thing that ever happened to him. Well when have I ever been understanding or _happy_? Fuck that shit!"

Kane was reeling from what she was saying. His Micah was still hurting from this, badly. "He said he loved me, that _I_ was the best thing that ever happened to him. We even talked about getting married. But then I literally saw that man get ripped to shreds. Like a fucking slut."

Kane absolutely didn't need _any_ of this information. "Micah-"

"What the fuck is wrong with me? Why couldn't I see that?"

"Micah!" He reached forward and took her hands. "I'm sorry about what you went through. Though I don't agree with a lot of that thought process you just brought me through," he wiped her face, "there is a lot of hurting in there. Now you told me enough for today. I want you to go home-go _straight_ home. Callie will be staying with a friend in the time being. Unfortunately, you are still a suspect and we need to be able to find you at all times."

Micah finally stood up after her face began to dry. "Go home and get some rest. I'll most likely send someone to come watch you-" She opened her mouth to interject. "-You know procedure. We can't let you be alone. And _I'll_ feel better if you weren't alone."

Micah sniffed and wiped one of her eyes, trying to get her emotions back under control. There was a reason she always hid everything inside. Before she could walk towards the door, she was pulled into a chest and she broke down crying once more.

Kane whispered in her hair, "It's okay, honey. It's going to be okay. Just let me do my job and protect you."

* * *

Micah sat at home wringing her hands together, pacing her room. She knew they had already placed guards outside of their apartment and didn't want the constant reminder. After her meltdown in Kane's room, she could still feel something building up in her gut. Her head started hurting and she knew she couldn't let herself get like that again or risk crying to sleep.

She also couldn't stop thinking about the inevitable. Somehow, everything was pointing to her. She's lucky Kane didn't know Daryl also hated Micah. Nor where Bailey was today. She may not have committed the crime today, but she may as well have three years ago.

She heard her _hiss_ of her door opening and turned. She was both surprised and relieved. Freckles could see her wild eyes and knew she was scared. She practically raced up to him and grabbed his shoulders. He seized her wrists and put them in front of him.

"Pike, what are you doing?"

"I want you to fuck me."

He inwardly groaned. Any other time, he'd be up for it. But things just didn't seem right at that moment. He was surprised to think that to himself, as they were an informal thing-assuming they were a _thing_ at all.

"No."

"Bellamy, fuck me. Now."

"Micah, I said no."

In response, Micah took back her wrists and bumped him. The wait of them both brought them falling onto her bed. As she tried to crawl her way up his body, he could discern the desperation in her eyes. She needed this, to be in control of something. But he wasn't having it.

"Mic-"

"Bellamy, fuck me. _Please_." She leaned down and started kissing his neck aggressively while laying her hand down on his crotch.

"Shit. Micah. Micah. Micah!"

He was able to grab her arms and stop her advance. They wrestled for a moment before she started crying hysterically. "Fuck me, Bellamy! Fuck me. Fuck me!"

Slowly, she began to lose her strength and let him lock her into his chest. She was muttering to herself, the phrase taking on a different meaning as she talked to herself. "Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me!"

Bellamy just held her as she wet his shirt. " _Fuck me_. Bellamy what am I going to do?"

He was unused to dealing with a crying person, but he knew she needed something stable now. So he just held her as she cried herself to sleep.

"Bellamy, please don't ever leave me."

He undid her loose braid and ran his fingers through her hair. It seemed to calm her a bit as she drifted off to sleep.

"Never, Mike."

* * *

 **Footnotes** **:**

 **1 – A locker room…for guns…lol**

 **2 - Thank you wikiHow for providing me steps for disassembling a gun. I've never held a gun in my life.**

 **3 - Haha! It's totally made up.**

 **4 - Micah is very hurt about Daryl's betrayal. I'm going to go ahead and point out that she is not homophobic (in the sense that she has no problem with people of other sexual orientations or lifestyles). But she is very hurt and her hate towards Daryl is clouding her judgement a bit. Instead of merely hating him, she is also blindly hating the part of him that got her hurt.**

 **4 (continued) - Since this is something that happened in the past, I will fill in some blanks on their relationship. Daryl considered himself bi, though never voiced this. But for a while he suspected he was actually only into men but wasn't sure because he _did_ love Micah in some way. He tried to tell Micah on numerous occasions, but she didn't listen to him, or rather didn't want to. He was simply friends with Bailey, but the two definitely had wonderful chemistry. The sexual tension between the two just kind of built up and...Daryl cheated. Realizing he was actually _in love_ with Bailey, he went to Micah to explain what happened and about his feelings like a mature adult, but Micah can't function when something is personal. So she basically cursed him and Bailey and told them to go die in a hole somewhere. Which it wasn't like Micah and Daryl's relationship was solid or anything. Micah _thinks_ she was in love with Daryl, but it was more like the idea of him. She's hurt simply because she didn't get her way.**

 **4 (continued again) - Anyway tese comments are being made in a very emotional moment and do not reflect how she really feels about the general population of LGBTQIA.** **She is a very angry, rude, and coarse person. Sometimes people like that say the most disgusting things to make themselves feel better. And I apologize if this hurts anyone, but as much as I love Micah, she has** major **flaws. She is not a perfect individual and later, I wish to address this (her lack of sensitivity towards others when she feels she is the victim). So don't worry. She won't get away with the comments she is making. She's going to have to learn to be a proper human being, and not just when she is in control of the situation. Again, I do apologize for the comments. It's was really hard to write that section!**


	10. Chapter Nine

**Sorry guys! I got a new job which takes up a** ** _lot_** **of my time. By time I'm home, I'm super tired every night. But I managed to squeeze this baby out in small spurts. Hopefully, I didn't wait too long to write this one.**

 **Recap: Micah is under suspicion for attempting to kill Daryl during the Unity Day Celebration. Both Kane and Shumway now know the history between her and Daryl (or rather,** ** _most_** **of it). How will Kane protect her?**

 **That last chapter seriously messed me up emotionally after writing it, lol. This one is kind of a filler before the next chapter, which will be intense. Also, this is just days before Unity Day masquerade (where Octavia is arrested).**

 **Warning: strong language and adult themes ahead.**

* * *

 ** _Faya Gada | 9_**

A few hours later, Micah awoke with a headache. Her face was dry and stiff from crying, and she had a major case of cotton mouth. She attributed that to her lack of food or water consumption. The light above her head was dimmed almost to a dark golden hue and there were no sounds. Except for the deep breaths sounding under her. She found Blake sprawled on his back with his arms stretched across her back. He had removed his guard jacket and boots. There was a small sheen of sweat on his brow. That was most likely Micah's fault. The room was always kept at a slightly warm temperature, and by laying on his chest, she had fed him more body heat than he needed.

But he had stayed.

The conversation leading up to the bed ran a bit fuzzy in her brain as she wasn't exactly stable emotionally, at the time. But she did remember raving like a lunatic and trying to use him to distract herself. She wanted to use and be used so badly, that she became desperate and blind to logic. Before, sex had been logical to them. Micah was frustrated about a lot of things and Bellamy was a man who didn't get any. Micah knew she sometimes took it way overboard, but Bellamy was always willing and compliant with her rules.

No cuddling. Don't make it personal. And finally, tell no one.

Micah had nearly broken every one of those rules hours before. Her wild proclamations were more than likely heard by the guards behind the thin, metal door. Though they were grunts, she knew those guards weren't stupid. She just hoped they were gracious enough to turn a blind eye.

But there was still a sense of peace in this moment. She usually woke alone to her loud overthinking. But now there was another person and things felt more personal. And she didn't want to admit it, but she liked it.

She heard a groan before she felt a hand against her side.

"Micah, you okay?"

She couldn't help just looking at him dopily with a simple nod of her head. There weren't any words she wanted to use and he seemed to understand this. Bellamy looked at the comm on his jacket after picking it up to check the time before pulling himself out of the bed. He quickly pulled the items on before heading toward the door. Seeing her eyes follow him insecurely, he stopped and smiled at her.

"I'm just going to see about getting you something to eat. I'll be right back."

As Bellamy left her room and knocked on the outer quarters, he felt himself smile a bit at Micah's behavior. The hardened lieutenant wasn't known for depending on other people or being perceived as vulnerable. But Bellamy understood where it was coming from. With her latest development with Daryl, she wouldn't be allowed to see very many people; not that there would be any visitors. Aside from him and Tevin, Micah didn't really have anyone as she had pushed them all away. But he wouldn't put it past Mr. Pike to try to come around.

"Daniels, could we get some f-"

"What are _you_ doing here?"

Standing across from Bellamy was the exact person he had been thinking about. He tried to cover up his surprise, but failed as a woman who looked akin to Micah examined him with a tray in her arms. She looked a lot like Micah [ **1** ]; the same curly hair but braided away in cornrows. It was like looking at an older, lighter, and slightly taller Micah Pike. Bellamy didn't have to be a genius to realize who this was.

"Mr. Pike…I was assigned to watch your daughter while she's on house arrest."

Micah's mother brought herself forward, balancing the tray in her arm after wincing at the statement. "And you are…?" Bellamy shook her hand. "Bellamy Blake, ma'am. It's hard to believe she's your daughter. You look much too young-"

"Oh, Mr. Blake. _Please_ stop it. You can't tell, but I'm blushing now." Bellamy smiled at that like a well-mannered, young man. "Just call me Veronica," she replied as he stepped aside to let the two in after the guards finished inspecting the parents.

Bellamy moved to the small room as soon as the door slid closed. "I'll fetch Micah for you-"

"Uh," Veronica stepped forward to stop him, "why don't you let me go in there?" She handed her tray to her husband, "Charles, could heat this up for me? I'll be a few moments."

Before Bellamy could interject, she waltzed to Micah's door. She lightly knocked on the door before peaking her head in. "Honey, can I come in?"

Micah turned her head away from the photo she was looking at after hearing her mother's voice. A curl fell in her face and she had to move it in order to see the person she was thinking. "Mother?"

Veronica swiftly moved into the room and let the door close behind her. She didn't want Micah to know Charles was in the next room.

"Hello, Smoochie [ **2** ]."

 _"Charles! Would you turn the stove off?" the woman yelled through the door._ _She sat on the edge of the cot, a bed of curls between her legs. She had a tub of clear cream in one hand and a comb in the other. The girl's hair was becoming a problem so they were trying something different. A towel sat across Veronica's legs to stave off the wet in the hair she just washed. After dabbing a large mountain of the cream into her hand, she began to run her fingers through the mountain of hair._

 _She knew her daughter was vexed by her rough handling, but there was no other way the nourishment would get into her scalp otherwise. But once they did this, it would be easier to care for in the following weeks. Micah winced as her mother pulled on the last section of her hair. Her kneecaps clanked as she clenched her fists. When the twist was made, her mother let go of her hair and rested her hands on her daughter's shoulders with a squeeze._

 _"_ _All done."_

 _"_ _Finally!" the gap-toothed girl exclaimed, throwing her arms up into the air. She scrambled to her feet and scrunched her face at the echoing pull in her head._

 _"_ _Mommie," she whined._

 _"_ _Sorry, baby," Veronica tried to reconcile. She was surprised Micah didn't complain when finishing the hair; she commenced to pull the comb through her hair, working to untangle from the ends to the scalp. Now that it was done, they could both get on with their lives. "But your hair is_ really _kinky...Kinkier than mine."_

 _Micah winced when massaging her scalp thoughtfully. "Kinky? That's a funny word."_

 _Her mother cracked a smile that was hidden. "Ah-ah-ah," she tisked. "What did I say about questions in the morning?"_

 _"_ _Write them down throughout the day then ask them at dinner."_

 _"_ _That's right. Now you'll be late for class. Go on," she pushed her daughter toward the door. But Micah ground her feet into the floor._

 _"_ _Wait!" Micah turned around and leaned up. Her mother knew to lean down to let her lips catch her cheek. "I love you, mommy."_

 _"_ _Love you too, Smoochie. Now don't forget your father."_

 _"_ _Of course not!"_

Her curious daughter had somehow always picked up on the dirty words. She had to beg Charles to stop his habit of cursing when their baby girl was born. Like any other child, she was a sponge constantly absorbing (and unfortunately, compulsively using) any information she could get her hands on. She was quite adept in drawing all the right blanks about certain adult phrases and situations.

Veronica had joked that their daughter would grow up to be Aphrodite [ **3** ], catching and throwing hearts far and in between. She was a sensitive child, preferring touch and kisses; she was also very curious about sexuality. Though it was normal for a child her age to ask about sex, she was never deterred by the infamous 'stark' tale. She wanted details, and details Veronica had been open to give. It was untraditional, but Charles had been the one in charge of setting their daughter straight because apparently Veronica was too liberal. Who knew he would also be the one to drive her away.

"What are you doing here?" Micah asked, crossing her arms over her chest. Though she wanted to pull her mother in for a hug, she felt shame for staying away for so long. Her and her father's feud had nothing to do with her mother, but she let that keep her away.

Veronica stepped forward, stroking Micah's loose hair. She may not have been combing through it every day, but her hair was staying moisturized and pretty much detangled. "Baby, I came as soon as I heard. I knew something was amiss when Henry came by asking all these questions."

"Shumway?" Micah pulled away from her mother's embrace and looked at the other Pike. "What was he asking about?"

"Oh, hun," Veronica tugged on a strand of her daughter's hair. "Don't worry about that. That's for another time. Right now I want you to let me be your mother." She could see the worry coming off Micah when she touched her. It had been so long since the two had seen one another after the fight.

Just then, Micah's stomach let out a powerful roar and she placed a hand on her stomach. "Did you see where Bellamy went? He was going to go feed me."

Veronica placed hands on her daughter's shoulders and smiled. "I brought some casserole."

* * *

Micah sat at her tiny dining table, excited at the prospect of her mother's cooking. Veronica looked through the cabinets and found plates before handing them to Bellamy to set the places at the table while she retrieved her food from the small oven. Bellamy could practically see her anticipating the meal, but she also looked a bit skeptical. Like she didn't fully trust the situation graced to her. Before the house arrest, she was never like that. Sure, she was always preparing herself in case something went south or the other way, but she didn't actively have no belief in what was standing right before her. Veronica wondered what had changed her affectionate daughter into what she called a "realist".

Bellamy watched Micah. She and her mother obviously talked about something for a while since they didn't come right out. And he could see her underlying happiness in seeing Mrs. Pike. But she still had the slightly crazed look in her eyes that she had when she asked him to never leave her the night before. She may have been enjoying this moment, but she was still scared of something. But what?

Bellamy laid down the plates and cutlery. And he moved to take a seat beside her, but she had already set eyes on the extra spot. And she became suspicious.

"...Who else is here?" with an accusatory tone, looking behind her to the bathroom door. That's when the sound of a toilet flushing sounded around the room.

Veronica pretended to busy herself with the casserole, which she piled into a large bowl that now sat as centerpiece for the table. Bellamy got up from his seat and moved to block her view. He placed his hands on her shoulders and forced her to face forward. When she tried to disarm him, he countered it with a technique she had taught them and kept her from leaving her seat. His hands caught her wrists as he leaned forward, his arms slipping around her shoulders. His lips brushed against the shell of her ear.

"Hey, hey," he whispered, doing his best to restrain her as she breathed heavily. His breath ghosted on her neck and she involuntarily shivered. "Just breathe for me. Breathe." Veronica watched from afar from the kitchen. It was strange to see how close in proximity her daughter let this man get. But her curious glances were ignored. "Come on."

After another moment, Micah actually began listening to Bellamy's instruction and took hollow breaths. "That's it, Mike. Just breathe with me." Her body began to slowly relax under his form. Just as the bathroom door was sliding open, Bellamy was able to loosen his hold on Micah and step slightly away. She seemed to forget what had caught her attention. That is until she saw the face appear across the table from her.

"I have been holding _that_ all morning seems like," Charles surmassed, trying to lighten the mood. He could see the contempt in his daughter's face. "Hi, Mikey."

Bellamy had sat down again and at her reaction, seized her hand under the table and gave it a squeeze.

"...I don't wanna do this."

"Micah-"

"And you think _I_ want to see you labeled a criminal?"

"Charles!"

He shot a look at his wife before turning to his daughter again. "What I mean is you are my daughter, and even though we have issues I never want to have you taken away from me without us at least being able to say goodbye." Micah's eyes grew salty as a wave of uncertainty washed over her. "I'm not saying you _did_ something or that this _is_ goodbye, but one day there _will_ be."

Charles thought his words would do its work. But they did a little too much work. They saw the look of finality on Micah's face and knew this wouldn't work. She ripped her hand from Blake's and pushed her chair back. Tears threatened to flow.

"Micah?" her mother breathed out in worry.

But her daughter didn't answer. She slammed the chair into the table and quickly retreated to her room before Bellamy could stop her.

* * *

Bellamy sat with his back to the door, his head resting to the side. His legs had gotten tired after standing in front of the door for half an hour Micah's parents had left an hour ago, but left the casserole on the counter. They were disheartened by their daughter's actions but there was nothing they could do at the moment; it seemed like the best they could do was leave.

Blake could hear a quiet whimper from behind the door and was praying she hadn't hurt herself.

"Micah," he called for the twentieth time. But it was still her silent crying that answered him. That is, until he heard a click behind him and the door against his back slid away. And he heard footsteps coming away from him. He sank on one of his knees before vaulting himself up from the floor.

"Micah?" He watched her stalk back to her bed and crawl under the comfort of the bed sheet. She honestly looked like a child in that moment. She had her body curled around a pillow as her hair shielded her face from his.

"Why are you here?"

Bellamy's eyebrows screwed together at the off-putting question. It was a dangerous question, at that, and he wasn't sure of how to answer.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Why are you here… With me right now? Why did you volunteer? What do you gain, Bellamy?"

She used his first name.

"Mike, I don't gain anything… You sound a little ridiculous right now-"

"Do I? Do I really have no reason to think there's a reason?" Wiping her nose she supported herself with her arms, legs tucked under her weight with the pillow still clutched between her fingers. "I'm stiff, manipulative, difficult… not to mention a complete bitch all the time. What do you have to gain from being here right now?"

He could see little gears turning in her head now and began to worry about where this thought process was going. Thought she was always honest, her low opinions of himself shocked him; so much that he took an involuntary step back on the ball of one of his feet. He supposed the only way he answer her question was to match her honesty, even if she didn't agree.

"A chance to make a difference… To help a friend."

"Friend?" She scoffed. "You call what we do a 'friendly pastime'? Really?"

"Really." He held her eyes as he slowly made his way to the side of the bed. He didn't mean to treat her like an infant, but she had her crazy eyes again and he couldn't tell what direction this conversation would take. "I think we're both people who are hurting all the time and need an outlet to make it some days."

She looked skeptical, but could tell his words were truth. "And sometimes secrets really bare on you," he continued sliding closer to her. At this she looked away almost guiltily. "So much that you're okay with using someone."

"Bellamy-" her voice coated in a half-sob. He was closer to the problem than he knew.

"It's okay," he placed a hand on the back of her neck before pulling her into his body. "I already know how it is. I told you, I'm here to help."

Her body shook but no water fell from her eyes. She had a lot of pent up emotions crammed into her small body and he wished there was something he could do. And he could feel his own built up tension from all the stress of life on the Ark. It was times likes this when he realized he was all she had and visa versa. Aside from O and his mother, he had no one. There wasn't a way to confide in another about his home situation or truly open himself up enough to be vulnerable.

Because of this, he was very tempted to spill the beans on everything: Octavia, using Micah, his loneliness...But that would be like inviting sever consequences...right? And what if she hated him?

Unsure of what to do, he held her tighter and began to recite lines from a poem his mother taught him. He could tell she was listening because her breathing changed.

 _I was walking again  
in the woods,  
a yellow light  
was sifting all I saw_.  
 _  
Willfully,  
with a cold heart,  
I took a stick,  
lifted it to the opposite side  
of the path._

There, I said to myself,  
that's done now.  
Brushing one hand against the other,  
to clean them  
of the tiny fragments of bark [ _ **4**_ _]_

She wrapped her arms tighter around him. "...I actually like it. What is it?"

"A poem I learned from my mother," he answered, letting her tuck her head under his chin. "She used to recite it to my sister and I whenever we-"

"Sister?"

That's when Bellamy realized what he had done.

* * *

 **1 - I imagine Rae Dawn Chong playing Micah's mother (but with hair in long cornrows). Just look her up on IMDb.**

 **2 - Is that not the cutest little pet name?! ;D**

 **3 - Micah is a pretty sexual being. She likes sex and isn't afraid to admit it. But this doesn't mean this is going to turn into a fic where she goes around kissing anything and everybody. She may love sex, but she wants to be responsible about it (like any adult should).**

 **4 - "Changing Everything" by Jane Hirshfield**


	11. Chapter Ten

**So...it's almost been a year since I've updated. Sad, sad, sad.** **Recap: Micah is the suspected murder-mastermind. While we know she didn't do it, Shumway has piles and piles of evidence proving otherwise. An obvious set up. Not to mention Daryl, Micah's ex-boyfriend, will be ready to testify against her. I'm pretty sure he really think it was her. Anyway, Micah is to have a hearing in the morning before her fate is decided. She's on house arrest until then and Bellamy is her personal guard. I think that's all the relevant information...** **Warning: strong and adult themes language ahead.**

* * *

 **Faya Gada | 10**

Bellamy held his breath.

He's surprised she wasn't mentioning the rapid beating of his heart as her head was now against his chest. Maybe she was just too distracted to notice. His body felt like it was going up several degrees every passing second. His back got a little itchy from the sweat. If she realized O was in fact Bellamy's sister, he honestly couldn't even fathom the consequences. He needed to make this right but he wasn't really sure of how. Maybe he could pretend it was an imaginary friend, or a kid from next door or something. Yeah, he could make that lie work. Except she was a human lie detector, could feel his guilt in this position, and had enough cynicism to seek proof.

"Did the great Bellamy Blake seriously just invent himself a sibling?"

Before Bellamy could rush out a reply, there was a buzz. Both adults brought their attention to the door, Bellamy springing up from the bed to answer it. As he made his way to the living area, Micah leaned her head off the bed to view the front door. When Micah saw the head of short, midnight black hair, she nearly fell off the bed. And there was a bald fellow standing next to him.

"Elliot! Tevin!"

The two stepped into the room after a nod from the guards outside the door. Bellamy paced back to the bedroom to help Micah up from her floor before she threw herself into the visitors' arms, to their surprise. The only other visitors she got were her parents and that hadn't been so lovely. Of course, she was happy to see them. Her icy attitude, be damned.

Elliot was the first person she was able to get her hands on. Her bare arms pulled him into her neck as she held on for her life. The guy tightened his arms and momentarily pulled her feet off the ground, making her squeal. And this is when Bellamy realized she was only in a t-shirt and her underwear.

"Mike, you might wanna put some clothes on…"

After Micah finished hugging Tevin, she threw a dirty look over her shoulder. "Let me be happy for like five seconds. Geez."

And Tevin replied cheekily, "It's nothing I haven't seen-"

A rough slap came to the top of his head, leaving it red. "Ow, I thought these were the cool kids. They should know the secrets of our inner sanctum."

Micah crossed her arms, before making her way to a chair. "Not those secrets. And that was a very long time ago."

Elliot and Bellamy joined her in the living area, Elliot taking off his strap. "How long we talkin?"

"Elliot!" as if he said something scandalous. Micah was surprised at his allowance of the conversation. He was usually really prude and didn't care to delve into details much. "For your information, we were still children. It was a great punch-to-the-face for my dad."

It was the truth. Micah was practically a woman by then and she was bored. Tevin was her best friend and it just kind of happened that way. She wasn't sure if he regretted it, but she certainly didn't.

"Wait," Bellamy interjected, "Tevin was the guy you...?"

"Oh my God, you're mom cooked!" sounded from the kitchen. Tevin was rummaging through her cabinets looking for treasure, it seemed until he found the leftover casserole in the tiny fridge unit.

"Hey, that's for the dead girl," Micah replied dryly. This made the others sober up.

"Hey, don't say things like that."

"What else am I supposed to call myself? There's 'traitorous bitch', but I feel like that's somehow derogatory." Not that she usually cared.

Her comment caused a gap of silence, looks of uneasiness on their faces.

They knew how this was going to go. She was entitled to a hearing with the council. She would plead not guilty and Shumway would challenger her with all this thoughtfully pulled together evidence. Evidence that probably couldn't be refuted without already knowing what would be thrown at her. Kane would surely side with her and, possibly, Abby Griffin, though she didn't know her very well; and she did vote to float her husband. But Micah wasn't familiar with the other council members, their stances, their motives. And she'd only spoken to the Chancellor on maybe three short occasions. She couldn't count on his vote. She couldn't count on anyone's vote.

She had already lost. And she knows she isn't the only one who's thought of this.

Elliot came to stand by her, his hand outstretched. In it was a piece of crumbled paper, crisply folded in squares. "I know this isn't much, but...some of the guys weren't able to come see you so they imparted some words. Just, if you're feeling isolated and in a dark place, read it." He made sure she was watching his face. "It'll give you new purpose."

Elliot shared a look with Tevin before shoving the paper into Micah's hands, hoping she got his message. He made it out to be a heartfelt goodbye with Bellamy standing there, but it was far from it. And he hoped Micah realized that.

There was a knock at the front door and the boys knew their time was up.

It didn't take a genius to figure out Takada's hidden message. As soon as the door shut, Micah did her best impression of a teenage girl who's gone mad. It wasn't hard when all she had to think about was her impending doom in a few days. Her eyes welled up and it became momentarily hard to breathe through her now congested nose. The only bad thing about "faking" was she couldn't say why she was crying or she would be found out. Verbalizing it made the lie a lie, and she didn't need that right now. So she just pretended she was too overwhelmed to recall what words were.

Bellamy's reaction to all of this was perhaps the best things she could've ever hoped for. Yes, she'd cried in front of him, to him before. And he was sensitive toward her, but now he was sure she was inconsolable. She could see him squirming and fighting his male instinct of running the other way. He seemed to struggle between touching her and just letting her have the moment to herself. The uncertainty was a bit humorous to her.

"Micah...Mike…"

She only let herself wail even harder and louder, determined to take control. Blake was increasingly becoming uncomfortable. He softly placed a hand on her back and tried to massage her neck, but she lightly pushed him away which he interpreted as disgust.

"Bellamy, I can't…!"

Blake looked alarmed and whipped his head toward the front door. Did Micah forget that they were audible while in the living area?!

"Mike, I-"

"No, just leave me alone!"

And she ran to her bathroom as dramatically as she could, slamming the door shut for good measure. She collapsed on the toilet, waiting a few minutes for him to believe she needed to really be alone.

After a few moments, she pulled the note from her back pocket in haste and proceeded to unravel the contents. And she was surprised at what she saw. There were four names on the paper:

 _Peter Morales Elliot Takada_  
 _Cliff Martin Shamil Camel_

And at the bottom was scrawled writing:

 _We're coming._

What the hell? Was this some kind of joke?

As she sat there memorizing all of the names on this list, she wondered what to do with the letter. She couldn't leave it on her person. Bellamy would be curious and discover it in a heartbeat. And seeing as his name wasn't on this list, maybe he couldn't be trusted to know about it. She had been in the bathroom for nearly an hour trying to figure out what this fucking secret message was.

Vigorous knocking could be heard from the other side of the door as well as a stern voice. Bellamy wanted to make sure she didn't fall and break her neck or something. That's when she saw the light on the keypad turn green.

Damn, she forgot they disabled all of her entryways. Not knowing what else to do, she threw the note under her, inside the toilet, and straightened up as if she was just sitting. She cocked a smirk in his direction when he entered the bathroom.

"Are we seriously at this stage already? Man, does time fly."

Blake took in her ragged appearance and the panties pulled down to her ankles and rolled his eyes, standing firmly. "You done?"

"Can I get some privacy?"

"You know I'm not supposed to take my eyes off you. I already gave you a good hour. Now let me do my job."

"But -"

"No buts."

The two had a stare down until Micah finally made the decision to reach behind herself and press the button, effectively flushing down her evidence of secrecy. She did this without breaking eye contact with her jailer.

"Well, fine then." She stood up confidently, purposely neglecting to pull the underwear back up her legs.

"Mike - "

"Hmm?" she hummed, stepping closer to him. She stepped out of the underwear completely, pressing her chest against his own. She could already see the lust build in his eyes as it always did. But unlike last time, she wouldn't let him refuse or or take control. She needed a distraction and his body was perfect for that.

"I told you last night - "

"Hmm, hmm. And?" Her hands found his waist.

"And - "

"I want you. And what better way to watch me..." She raised her head to lock his eyes while her hands continued their mission. His belt easily slid from the belt loop to the ground. And her hand snaked under band, prompting a hiss from his lips.

"You know you want to," she taunted, her lips grazing his own.

And he broke. Clenching a fist in her hair Bellamy pulled her into a searing kiss, fighting her tongue for power. Stepping up her game she bit his lip, proceeding to yank down his pants and helping him to remove them. After the two worked off his jacket, Bellamy picked up the slender girl and made his way over to the shower.

Sex was definitely more fun than actual work.

* * *

It was night before Micah thought about the note again, being distracted and all. Bellamy had definitely put down his best, no doubt realizing this would be coming to an end soon. Micah would be whisked away in the morning to the hearing. But it wasn't really much of a trial. She was sure there was enough evidence to persecute her. She should've been more grateful that her mentor was able to give her a chance to go before the council and defend herself, an uncommon occurrence on the Ark when crime was suspected. But opinions were made, and no defense could pull her from this one. While Kane was powerful, he was only one of many sitting at the table.

Micah glanced down at the sleeping body under her. Blake had a pleasant smile plastered on his face, no doubt having sweet dreams. She wished she could sleep so freely. Careful of his legs, Micah untangled herself from the body. Stepping over the used towels on the ground, she managed to find a loose shirt and a ripped pair of pants after replacing her underwear. She left the room after hearing the deep snore behind her, making her way for the kitchen. She hadn't eaten since her parents showed up that morning. Passing the bathroom, she could make out the pile of discarded clothes her and Bellamy left behind.

Before she could reach her fridge unit, she heard a light tap on the front door before it swished open.

"Morales?" It was a guard she rarely had any interaction with but knew his face. What the hell was he doing here?

He stepped forward with a finger at his lips, his body low. He peaked into the bedroom to view the comatose Blake and looked at her before whispering, "Really?"

Surprisingly, she felt heat creep up her cheeks at his comment, before getting angry. "Why - "

"Shh."

He motioned for her to come toward the front entrance, wary of waking her bodyguard. Micah being Micah didn't care for being ordered around and crossed her arms with a raised brow. "Don't shhh me!" she whispered back.

Peter Morales gave a look of exasperation before he began making gestures with his hands. Sign language was a limited language on the Ark [1]. There was sparsely any use for it amongst the people. The only ones to learn it were those that took it on as a hobby (i.e. her annoying father). But even the language was broken. Many of its words lost to the space people. Micah was surprised when she realized she still remembered enough to pick out certain words.

 _Leave...now...secret..._

Another light tap came at the door and Morales yanked it open, giving the other guard a look. It was Martin.

Wait, neither of the two were assigned to her. And she couldn't fathom why he would be here of all people. What happened to the other guards?

"We don't have time." He whispered, gesturing for her to come to the door. She quietly came toward the door but didn't walk through.

"Don't have time for what? I don't understand."

"Just follow us."

"Yeah, like I'm stupid enough to fall for this trick. Following you would be a death trap for me."

Of course she wanted to! But she was a law-abiding citizen. She couldn't just flake out on her house arrest. Besides, the monitor on her ankle would go off. And just to get these fools to go away, she put a hand on her hip and let her monitor cross the threshold. But when she didn't hear the alarm, she was immensely confused. She looked back up at the two guards in surprise.

"Still think it's a death trap?" Morales smirked, stepping back into the hallway. "Now, you can stay if you wanna float in four hours...Be my guest."

He was right. She was a goner. Would be dead by the morning. But what could they possibly do about that? They were floating around in space. What, did they plan to hide her onboard for the rest of her life? She would be found eventually.

"Come on, Pike. You're dead anyway," Martin spoke up. "Take a chance. Trust us."

And she suddenly through of the note in her toilet drain, likely floating around space by now. They're names were on the note, as was Takada's. Surely if his name was on the parchment, she could trust them. Right?

* * *

 **Footnotes:**

 **1 – There isn't an actual expert or fluent speaker of sign language on the Ark. With such a small population, I imagine it's almost a dead language. Even those that would highly benefit (the hearing impaired) from using it, aren't able to because there isn't a designated teacher or 'keeper' of sign language. So some people just know certain little words. Like how people know certain Spanish terms from pop culture and peers and such...**


	12. Chapter Eleven

**Yes, I know I suck. Hopefully this is good enough to put me back on your good graces. Or maybe not. We'll see.**

 **Recap: Micah receives a weird note from Takada with four names on it. Two people from the list come for her in the middle of the night and break her out hours before her 'trial'. Now they are running.**

 **Warning: strong and adult themes language ahead.**

* * *

 _ **Faya Gada | 11**_

Beating. And pulsing. That's all Micah could hear and feel at the moment. That and the loud pounding of boots on metallic floors as they made their way down the corridor. As she paced behind Morales [ **1** ], the dingy shirt she had thrown on just minutes before billowed behind her. And her feet were smacking on the ground too loudly for her liking. She wanted to tell them to slow down but feared being caught in the first place.

"Where are we going?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," was Morales' reply. And he left it at that. There was a cackle as someone's radio came to life. The static soon cleared and a voice could be heard.

" _-static-_ Harold to Morales. Where is your location? Over _-static-_ "

" _-static-_ Morales to Harold. We're on the east corridor in Sector 12 _-static-_ "

"What the hell, Morales," she whispered, eyes wide in surprise.

A different voice came through this time. " _-static-_ Command to Morales. Do you have eyes on the suspect? _-static-_ "

She should've known this was a setup. Micah's breathing got heavy as she looked around to see if they were in sight. She knew this was a setup. Morales stopped, holding up his hand to stop Micah from continuing and signaled for Martin to move on. She tried to ask them what was happening with her eyes, but it was almost like she was an object in that moment, and not a person.

" _-static-_ " He was smacked on his head before the transmission could go out.

And she was running. Or at least, trying to. The cold floor was a distraction against her bare feet, but she had no time. Should try to sneak back into the apartment and pretend she never left? No, they would have men posted there already. But where could she hide?

Before she could turn the corner, she heard a gun cock from another corridor. She turned and immediately threw her hands up. There was a dark-skinned guard walking toward her with his gun pointed at her. And didn't look like he was going to put it down.

"Shit!"

"Pike, stand down!"

"I haven't done anything!"

He laughed like she just told a joke. "I may know that, but _he_ doesn't."

All she could do was cock a brow at the comment before shielding her head when he went to pull his trigger. It certainly sounded like a gun had gone off, but she never felt the bullet. Slowly pulling her peeking behind her arms, she saw that the guard still had his gone at the ready. But he began to holster it around the time that she heard something drop to the ground behind her. This made her flinch and step away from the paralyzed man on the ground.

The guard radioed in. Micah was still too shocked to react or care. " _-static-_ Bhatt [ **2** ] to Command. She's been spotted in Sector 3. _-static-_ "

Lie.

" _-static-_ Understood. Squad 7 [ **3** ], 8, and 2: Converge on Sector 3. Everyone else hold your positions―"

"Hey, there's little time and we're behind schedule…"

Micah looked up from the body on the ground to find the guard holding his hand out to her. Reluctantly―and understandably confused, she placed her hand in his, which he quickly grasped whilst pulling her down the hallway. And they were running again.

* * *

Veronica Pike sat up in the bed, tears burning and preventing her eyes from resting. Kane had come to warn them of the trial and the likelihood of Micah being acquitted. It was not possible. As a mother, she didn't know what to think. While she tried to believe in the legal system of their world, she couldn't see how the death penalty ever helped her people. Sure, there was one less person to worry about supporting, but the population of the Ark was dwindling every day and they needed every resource they could get.

The Ark had taken away so many. And now it was taking away her baby.

Her husband emerged from the bathroom, face sullen and defeated. He just spent the last hour crying alone in the shower, instead of upsetting his wife. The act of crying in front of her made him feel weak in this instance. He had tried to get Mike out of this mess, pled with Kane to help his girl. But it seemed to fall on false ears. Kane was a bureaucrat. If it wasn't in the book, he wouldn't do it. Not even for someone he might even call his daughter. And all Pike wanted to do was, at least, say goodbye.

As he settled into bed beside his wife, he rubbed his knuckles. Punching that lazy bastard felt too good.

* * *

After joining Morales, whom she tried to apologize to, the three made their way into what looked to be an unsanctioned sector. There were hardly any lights and the dark seemed to touch everything. But they came upon a dingy and rusted door at the end of a passage. The whole thing was a bit too sketchy for her, but before she could open her mouth the door was thrust open by someone behind it and Micah was being ushered into a strange room.

There were monitors on nearly every wall and personnel rushing about. Many of them carrying crates of supplies into a medium-sized pod attached to one of the walls.

"What the hell is this? Hey," she tried to get the guys' attention but they were talking to someone else. "Hey, will anyone tell me what's going on?"

"Micah, you made it!"

Elliott Takada paced over, throwing his arms around the girl. Micah pulled away from the hug to examine him. He was no longer in his guard uniform. He was wearing a bulky, blue spacesuit and boots.

"Takada, you _have_ to tell me what's going on? Why am I here?"

"It's simple. You're going to Earth."

" _What_?!"

* * *

Tevin ran into the public restroom as swiftly as he could, slamming the door behind himself and locking it. He threw off his radio and doused it in sink water before throwing off his vest and gun.

He need to set this up just right.

With the gun, he carefully aimed at a vent above one of the stalls and the metal door came crashing down.

* * *

"I'm sorry, _earth_. What earth?"

"You know," Takada started, walking to a heavy pack sat on a chair. "That land mass that we're floating above right now." He began stuffing bandages and a tool kit inside.

Micah couldn't believe this. She was stolen away from her death sentence, taken to some chamber of secrets where apparently people take little space trips to the Earth. She was just freaking out about dying. Now she was in some crazy conspiracy.

Takada paused in his packing when he noticed the dissociated look on Micah's face, just now realizing nothing has been explained to her.

"Mike, you do know about the Exodus trial, don't you?"

The blank look he got in return was almost comical until a woman gripped Micah's shoulders and began to lead her away to an enclosed area. "Miss Pike, we're behind schedule."

Micah could be heard complaining from across the room.

"What is this damn schedule everyone's on about?"

* * *

" _Graham, they think she's armed,_ " a voice conveyed through Tevin's earpiece. " _Some assistance please."_

Tevin paused his setup of the device he was constructing. If _he_ was reaching out to him, they must be desperate for time.

" _I'm a little busy."_

" _Graham_ ― _"_

" _Alright, Kane! Just being sassy…One distraction coming right up."_

Tevin finished up the device and placed it on a relay in the vent before taking hold of his gun.

"Damn, is this going to hurt," he muttered before whipping himself with the butt of the gun as best as he could.

* * *

"Good, the duchess is ready," Morales commented.

Micah rolled her eyes. "Huge overstatement. Still clueless here. I need you to answer my questions."

Her hair was French-braided back into two braids, a welcome sight from the knotted, unkempt mess she enabled. The woman had forced her into a sweatshirt and cargo pants. And by force, Micah meant the woman threatened to cut her in Spanish, as well as a few other things. Over the simple ensemble was a spacesuit identical to Takada's. Morales wore one as well.

"Back up, girly. You ain't the boss of me. I'm not Violent Crimes nor one of your little boy scouts." Micah couldn't resist rolling her eyes at this misplaced sass. "I have orders to bring you to the boss when you're dressed. We're moving out soon."

Annoyed at all the secrecy, Micah pushed past him and stalked back to the common area, where someone was debriefing everyone. "Brat," Morales muttered after her.

"Exodus One is about to commence. Now that we've tied up one of our loose ends, we can proceed with the plan. All that's left is Alpha team taking the shuttle down to the planet―"

"Wait a minute. Marcus?! What the hell?"

"Micah," he warned, "just a moment. You all know your jobs. We've got one chance. Don't blow it."

The small crowd dispersed as final pieces of the plan began to materialize.

"Micah," Kane stepped over to her, inviting her to sit. He gestured to bottle of water. "Water?"

Pike huffed at the innocent question, fixing her eyes on the man she had come to trust. He was obviously hiding something big from her. And now was the time to fess up.

"Alright. You want to know what's going on?" Micah crossed her arms and got comfortable. "The Ark is dying."

What?

"The Ark is dying and we won't make it another year or two unless something is done."

"I―I don't understand."

"It's the life-support. There's limited oxygen left. One of our engineers, Jake Griffin, found the error in the system but was going to warn the whole Republic. The Council shut him down and he faces execution. We have a very small window here. And with you dying in the morning, now is the time."

"Wait. Me dying in the morning? How would you know that if I haven't had the trial yet?"

"Evidence speaks. No one was going to let you walk," he says in a mater-of-fact tone.

Thought she knew this already, it still hurt to hear from someone else―someone on the Council―what she knew. She was certainly going to be dead by the morning.

"Now we've been working on this mission for a while: Exodus One. With the air running out and no other solutions, we're a little desperate for an alternative. Our science division has been watching the Earth's systems and believe, theoretically, that one could survive on that planet now. Problem is we don't know this for sure."

 _Now_ things were clicking. Micah swallowed the saliva that had collected at the base of her esophagus and sighed. "I'm a guinea pig―"

"Micah, that's not quite―"

"I'm a _guinea pig_."

Kane rolled his eyes at her selfishness. It's like she didn't hear him just say that _everyone_ on the Ark was walking on death row.

"Yes. Along with your team, Alpha One. I was very selective in choosing you five to lead this mission. Micah, this is humanities last hope."

And that's when she started to hyperventilate.

* * *

 **Footnotes** **:**

 **1 – I've cast Josh Hartnett and all his facial hair glory as Peter Morales. Morales is a bit older than everyone else. I envision somewhere between 30-35 years old.**

 **2 - I made a mistake last chapter. On the note was** _ **Peter Morales, Elliott Takada, Cliff Martin,**_ **and** _ **Shamil Camel**_ **. For some reason, I wrote Camel. I think it was a stand-in name I was using until I finalized this name. But the character's name is actually** _ **Shamil Bhatt**_ **, NOT** _ **Shamil Camel**_ **. Sorry.**

 **Also, I cast Ranbir Kapoor for him.**

 **3 - Couldn't write 'Squad 7' without smiling like a dork** **.**


	13. Chapter Twelve

**So, I realize that we were supposed to be on Earth a long time ago, but I guess the story is evolving and what not so…yeah. We'll get there. Don't worry. And sorry, no Bellamy (again) in this chapter. But the next one, I promise!**

 **This is a short and silly chapter. Basically filler. I wanted to establish the team's personalities and chemistry before they were sent down. This is the first time all five are in a room together, so I hope this is entertaining. It's certainly a light tone considering they're about to be shipped off into to space to their possible doom.**

 **Recap: Tevin has created a distraction for Micah's 'escape', and Alpha One is preparing to be sent off.**

 **Warning: language and adult themes language ahead.**

* * *

 ** _Faya Gada | 12_**

Tevin clumsily stumbled out into the hallway where a squad of guards were stationed.

"Shit – help! She – she got my face!"

One of the guards radioed. "-static- Squad 3 to Command. We've got an injured in Sector 3. She's in the restroom. –static-"

Another one stepped forward with a hand on his gun. "Identify yourself!"

"I – Graham. Tevin Graham! I was taking a squat when she barged in there!"

"Damnit." The guard stepped toward the door and attempted to open it, but it was held down from the inside. "Pike, we know you're in there. Surrender now!"

An idle guard nearby tilted his head at Tevin, noticing the lack of equipment.

"Hey, where's your arm piece?"

"That's how she got me. She got her hands on it somehow and broke my nose!"

"Okay, okay. We need to you to step back, Graham. Hey, Skarsgård, take him to the med wing?"

"Yes sir."

As the guard began to lead Tevin away, he relayed in his earpiece, " _The scene is set. You've got about ten minutes._ "

* * *

After a few minutes of acute panic attacks, Micah was finally sat inside the shuttle in one of the seats against the wall. As she was strapped in, she looked around to see everyone else.

To her left was Morales, he was making sure all the packs were secure in the compartments. For once, his brown hair was nicely swooped back by some kind of hair product. He didn't have the top half of his spacesuit on correctly, but it seems that was on purpose. It seemed easier to carry crates back and forth with the thick material off. He wore a scowl on his face.

On the other side of him was the guard that saved her in the hallway earlier. The man had a youthful face, though one could tell his age from the way he carried himself. Thanks to the light above his seat, Micah could see the subtle scar under his left eye. Or it was possible that it was some kind of birth mark. But it didn't mar his skin at all. If anything, it kind of made him appear more endearing.

The man let out a big sigh and gave her a big smile. Micah was taken aback.

"You look nervous."

"Well," Micah gestured to the shuttle around them. "…space." This was the only explanation she felt was worth giving and he laughed.

"True. By the way, my name is Shamil Bhatt. I tried to introduce myself earlier but we were busy."

"Well it's sort of nice to meet you, Shamil." She knew she could put on her normal-person face every once in a while. "I just wish it were under better circumstances."

"Yes. Would've been helpful to have you in the briefings. We've been meeting about this for weeks now." Weeks? "I wonder what role you will be playing."

Micah scrunched her face. This insaneness has been occurring for weeks? And she had _no idea?_ What kind of lieutenant commander was she? Granted, she'd never met either of these two men. But still felt somewhat responsible for this crazy ride that she's been on.

"We have roles?" she asked over the sound of a sliding door activating, Takada [ **1** ] appearing on the other side. "That sounds a little juvenile."

Annoyed, Morales butt in while still packing things away. "Nothing juvenile about it. I mean, _this_ _is_ a secret mission where we _save the world_."

The sarcasm oozing from this guy was not appreciated by the resident woman. "Alright, wolf man. Easy on the cynicism. If I'd wanted back sass with my rations, I'd have ordered it."

Seeing the two personalities clashing, Takada sped over in full gear with his hands stretched out.

"Okay! Seems like we've all met," he said with an awkward laugh. "By the way, if you haven't figured it out yet, you guys are sort of like the same person. So if we could just, _I don't know_ …not do this—"

" _Phsh_. She's asking for it. She's a child, for God's sake."

"Oh, God," Takada rolled his eyes. This caused him to meet eyes with Bhatt, whom quickly averted them to play with his seatbelt. Both realized this was a gargantuan waste of time on their parts and turned away to leave the two stubborn mules to duke it out. So Takada left to the front of the shuttle and at in the center seat near the controls.

That's also when Cliff Martin decided to finally make his appearance. He was carrying a large duffle, presumably, with weapons of different kinds and gunpowder. He threw it in the storage and opened his mouth to say something, but opted out when he noticed both Takada and Bhatt shaking their heads furiously.

Micah blinked her eyes rapidly in disbelief.

"A _child_?" She gestured toward her breasts, which were nonexistent under the spacesuit—which she forgot. "Do I look like an underdeveloped, adolescent to you?"

"Right this moment? Yeah."

The three idle men groaned. Morales smirked, almost laughing at his own comment.

" –static- Command to Alpha One. Preparing for sendoff. Standby. Over –static-"

He pressed the radio on his hip, " –static- Understood. Over. –static- " And then he turned away from Micah to face the general direction of the group. "Emergency water and med supplies?"

"Check," Bhatt.

"Security and reinforcement resources secure?"

"Yep," Martin.

"Good. All the shelter and ration deposits are ready. We should be good to go," he nodded to the team before turning to Micah, his head dipped low to face her. "And is the wittle gwirl ready to go?"

Micah did nothing except glare extensively at him as he stalked over to his seat, strapping himself in. She noticed he wore that stupid smirk again. He called to Takada up front, "It's all you, El."

"Right. Everyone buckle in. –static- Alpha One to Command. Shuttle is green. Awaiting orders. Over -static-"

"Wait," Micah rushed out. It's like all of a sudden, her brain is thinking much more clearly and is realizing something crucial. "If we're taking a shuttle down to Earth—which we haven't done in a _very_ long time—isn't it possible that we'll crash?"

"Eh, it's possible but we'll probably sooner die from the radiation if anything else," Bhatt shrugged nonchalantly.

"Radiation?"

Takada threw a glare at Bhatt for giving such information. "What?" Bhatt asked. "Is it not true?"

"If that's the case, then why are we doing this insane mission?" she asked, genuinely confused.

"Because someone's got to. We just happen to be qualified and crazy enough to volunteer," Martin answered from his seat in the back.

Oh, crap. Micah did not want to do this anymore. Not that she wanted to in the first place. But now, she _really_ didn't want to be there.

* * *

 **Footnotes:**

 **1 – Ross Butler's face is pretty close to what I envision Takada to be like.**


	14. Chapter Thirteen

**I got a question from someone about the Exodus trial. Wondering why Kane, Micah's somewhat surrogate father, would be willing to send her down when there are no guarantees that they'll make it safely? The way I see it, the guy was willing to cull nearly 300 people in order to save some time on the Ark. Would he not be willing to sacrifice five upstanding citizens if it may mean hope for his people? Just seems that way to me. Also without the mission, Micah has no choice but to be floated. At least with the exodus, she has a chance of surviving and living on (albeit a** _ **very**_ **small chance).**

 **I also thought about writing part of this chapter from (Mr.) Pike's point of view, but I actually really hate his guts so… it didn't happen. And writing as Micah's mother would mean including Pike in some way. It's funny how I choose to make my character the daughter of someone I dislike with a passion. Haha.**

 **Recap: Preparing for lift off.**

 **Warning: strong language ahead.**

* * *

 ** _Faya Gada | 13_**

Bellamy was just coming out of dreamland when the guards showed up pounding at the door. His heart nearly jumped out of his chest as his body went into a mechanical trance. Cursing, he quickly slid out of the bed and onto the floor, grabbing for the closest article of clothing he found. As he drew up his pants, he tried to blink the sleep from his heavy eyes. This had to be the fastest he'd ever thrown on clothes. Probably attributed to the fact that guards were just outside the door. He was sure no one wanted to see a naked guardsman. Aside from Micah, of course.

Once dressed, he ran his hand through his raven hair. He tried to fix the bed hair but it didn't seem to follow procedure. Before he reached the door, he glanced back to see if his involvement was obvious and he literally almost fainted.

She was gone.

 _Fuck!_

He goes into a panic and just stands there for a second before whispering, "Mike…Micah, where are you? Mike?" He moves around to the bathroom then kitchen and comes up short. There isn't a sign of the lieutenant commander in the apartment and the guards are still banging on the door. Instead of lying, he does the only thing he can think to do at the moment.

Throw her under the bus.

He makes a commotion of trashing the bathroom and leaving the door slightly ajar to simulate falling out of the bathroom. Taking false breaths, Bellamy makes himself crawl to the door while roughly pushing against his face to appear redder. This had to look like an assault. When the door banged open, the desperate man put on a show.

"What the hell is going on?! One second I'm standing outside the bathroom, the next I'm waking up in the shower!"

He was sure to put on his best crazy eyes, though he didn't know if he even had those in the first place. However, it helped his story that he'd literally just woken up. By now, his freckled face was reddened unevenly, giving the illusion that he may have been assaulted.

One of the guards pushes past the man on the floor to survey the apartment while the man at the door addresses him. "Do you remember anything, son?"

"N-No. I…I'm sorry. It's all a blur. I just remember her going to the restroom."

"Pike is attempting escape. We've got every man on the job."

…What?

"…but…where could she go? We're in deep space…"

"We've been trying to figure it out. She was seen on another station but as she is yet missing in action, we wanted to make sure she didn't somehow make it back here."

Bellamy stepped aside and let the men pass as he contemplated what he just heard. Micah deserted him and made a run for it. What the hell was happening? And where was she? And why didn't she tell him? Did she not trust him enough? Think he would try to stop her or turn her in?

To be honest, he wasn't sure what he would've done if she'd come to him first. He'd like to think he'd help, but it wouldn't save her life in the end. He'd just be named an accomplice and lose more than just his job. He'd probably lose his life.

Would that have been worth it?

Probably not. But not Micah was out there fighting for her life on her own.

Bellamy wasn't sure of what he could do at this point.

* * *

Still nervous and unsure, Micah is trembling. Doing her best not to break down. She asks them, "What are you guys in for?"

"I'm just the pilot," Takada expressed with a small smile. "Martin will be our security, Bhett our medic, and Morales is running point."

"What? That can't be right." She turns to Morales. "What experience do you have?"

"I may be a new face to you, but I ain't new to leadership."

"Then what am I—'

[bleep, bleep, red lights, turbulence]

"Exodus One, we are go. I repeat, we are go. Over."

"Exodus One to Command. Diverting power to engines. Over." Takada slightly turned his head and threw back, "Buckle in! Helmets on!" before facing forward to mess with the controls.

Morales smirked at Micah and secured his seat. Clicks could be heard around the shuttle. "Time to make history."

Suddenly it was like her heart was in her throat, the beating pounding inside her ears and the shuttle got dark as Martin killed the back lights. There was only the green and red flashes from the ceiling above and Micah swore she was going to throw up.

"Don't you fucking chuck on me!" Morales spit out from next to her, but she didn't hear him.

All that she could focus on in that moment was her rapid breathing. There was the sound of the engines, she supposed, which were blaring and seemed to be accelerating as a hatch began to peek open from below. The movement shook the whole shuttle causing Micah to shake in her seat. Instinctively, her hands grabbed onto the handles, which already held the hands of Morales on her left and Bhatt on the other side. She did not hesitate to crush their hands into oblivion.

"Shit!"

The jerk exclaimed. Yet he did not pull his hand away was looking over and seeing how distraught the girl was. If this helped her to freak out less, so be it.

Then quickly the whole Ark shook as the shuttle dropped into space.

* * *

 **At the beginning of the chapter, I wanted to illustrate that Bellamy is a survivor as evident from before he got to earth. It's not just about his family, but he is ready to do what he has to do (i.e. lie his butt off) to protect himself despite his apparent friendship with Micah.**

 **Also I've had writer's block like no one's business, but Micah's departure to Earth was overdue to I spruced something up. It's definitely too short and not good like I want it to be, but I felt bad leaving it how it was. We'll see about how soon her Earth debut will be up next chapter.**


	15. Chapter Fourteen

**Hello! (Please don't throw rocks at me!) I know it's been several months since I've updated and I apologize. School is not for the faint of heart.**

 **Thanks to you all who are hanging in there; and welcome newcomers to Faya Gada! It's a fanfic I've been wanting to write for years. But I didn't realize school, work, and internships would actually be an obstacle with writing for me, especially since it's so fun! I just hope I actually get to write out this puppy for you guys…Just don't give up on me!**

* * *

 **Anyway, it's finally here! Just a few points:**

 **1\. Shout out to alicelouise'x for the awesome review! She pointed out that Octavia has been particularly absent from Bellamy's POV and that's something I got lazy about. I had some scenes and POVs planned out, but I haven't completely settled on how I want to portray Octavia and her relationship to her brother. I may still do it since Bellamy and the kids are still on the Ark. But I** _ **completely**_ **forgot about my girl (she's one of my fave characters). Out of site, out of mind I guess** **. Thanks for pointing it out lol.**

 **2\. The majority of this chapter is from someone else's point of view (wink). So Micah's true thoughts are shielded. I'll probably write more on it in one of the later chapters.**

 **3\. Just a reminder that this story is AU. I will try to keep many elements from the** _ **show**_ **but anything is up for grabs at this point. Throw your timelines and plot points out the window!**

 **Recap: Micah and team left the Ark.**

 **Warning: strong language ahead.**

* * *

 ** _Faya Gada | 14_**

Everything hurt. There was a heated throbbing of her side; she could feel air hit open flesh. She involuntarily shivered but wasn't entirely sure of what the reasoning was. One moment she felt fine, the next her body was on fire while other parts like her left hand lacked any feeling. The air was both sticky and light. It almost felt like she didn't need to breathe. But then she realized she definitely still needed air and inhaled though all she could do was cough with the arid fumes swimming around her.

Her vision was blurred and yet she could make out certain shapes. Like…a tree?

"H-hello? Eh-ellioht? Elliot?" her words were garbled and struggled to leave her mouth.

Instinctively, she licked her lips to rectify this, but it was like all the moisture in her body had evaporated away with the fumes of smoke. Suddenly, she was having difficulty breathing. It was like dust got caught in her throat and she was now fighting an invisible enemy. Her lips twitched as she tried to voice herself once more to realize her lack of control.

Then a shadow was there touching her, the voice low and gravely. She would remember this voice in time to come, how it soothed her into a flaccid slumber. The voice and some astonishing warmth enveloped her.

She didn't remember closing her eyes.

* * *

When she came to, she was lying somewhere damp and hard, and that was about as descriptive as she could get as she was unable to open her eyes. Her head felt swollen, or at least extra heavy. The pain that was there had seized.

Slowly, she propped herself up on her elbows to relieve the pressure on her stomach and almost hissed at the rock biting into her.

Wait—rock!

She furrowed her brow and attempted, slowly, to open her eyes. It was a struggle but it helped that wherever she was, lacked light. Looking down, she sniffed and recognized something…earthy, as her father would call it. The rock was long and jagged with patches of green stuff around it.

 _Is this…moss?_ She tried recalling those years of Earth Science but her mind kept wandering from place to place. _Where am I? Is that dirt? What if I get an infection? Is there food, supplies? Am I decent right now? I'm thirsty._

When she shifted, she realized there was some sort of cloth thrown onto her back. She tried to turn her head and see what it was, but pain immediately rippled down her spine and she faced forward again, cursing.

Then she was suddenly aware of footsteps behind her and reacted on instinct. She grabbed a sharp piece of rock ( _was it even considered rock?_ ) and pulled her body to the side. Her hand let go of the weapon with a flick of the wrist and it flew near the mass's jugular. A hand came up and stopped it while taking a step back into the shadows. Micah then let out a groan of pain as she was now on her previously hurting side. She felt something warm and sticky, yet again. But she refused to have her back turned.

" _Really?"_ It was the voice again. Gravely and rough. Micah just sat there heavily breathing as her vision swam a little. " _Are you happy now?"_ gesturing to her opened wound.

When they took a step forward, Micah tensed though the pain made her wince. They dropped the rock and raised their hands.

" _I'm not going to hurt you._ " Who is this stranger and why are they talking like that? " _Do you enjoy bleeding out_?"

It was hard to see exactly who was speaking as her vision was blurred. There was a dark, hulking mass. Probably male, with…long hair? Micah managed to twist her body around—painfully so. She carelessly propped herself up against a nearby boulder. Her hair was loose, and fell across her front and shoulders. And that's when she realized something was more than wrong. "Don't come any closer!"

She gasped. If her breath could get any heavier…The man's steps halted and it sounded like there was a growl.

"…So you're a warrior."

She definitely understood that. The hulking outline tilted its head before moving. She could see him reaching for something. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," Micah rushed out. He resumed what he was doing, which to Micah looked like a threat. "Don't!" The man seemed to listen to her this time. His back slowly straightened and he stood with his weight on one side. "Think I'm stupid? I can spot a weapon a mile away."

"Huh. Well apparently you can't spot a lil water." The smug bastard. Her brown orbs found what he was talking about on his hip.

"Move slowly," she locked him with a glare while licking her dry lips. "Then toss it here." The longer she was awake, the more lucid she became.

"You could ask nicely." His face was slowly clearing up. She could now identify a prominent nose and some facial hair. And were those scars?

"Me…nice?" She gulped to rid of that pesky dust in her throat. Damn, dehydration was a bitch. "I'm parched, here."

"Parched…" He seemed to ponder that word; it was foreign on his tongue but not forgotten. "You're a little more than that right now." There was that gravel again.

He lazily stepped forward with something in his hand and got closer. Micah instinctively went rigid and tried to warn him. He reached for her with massive hands, but one of her hands came up to block him, gripping with little force. He rolled his eyes and used his other hand to gently push her backward. She scrambled backwards in a pouf, momentarily forgetting where she was, her side ever stinging.

"Ow!"

"You weren't being very nice," he replied simply, tossing the water next to her head before stalking back over to the fire pit.

He hadn't planned on babysitting a foreigner today. There was a meal to catch. From the corner of his eye, he watched her attempt to readjust with a bloodletting glare. The bronzed girl with wild hair was far from what he thought he'd be dealing with, not that he should've expected anything ordinary from someone that seemed to fall from the sky.

He'd found her amidst the fire and smolder, helpless and in shock. He knew he probably should've waited for the fires to die down, but he didn't want to risk being seen by anyone. By terms of his banishment, he was to never be seen in Ice country. But he knew it would be a few days before his mother would send anyone up here to investigate. This was his one chance.

And he was glad her took it after seeing what he saw. He found a bloodied, ragged woman limping around aimlessly—calling out to something—a heavy piece of metal lodged into her side. Her hair long and curly, a tangled mess. She obviously had suffered significant damage, but it wasn't safe for him to go in. Things were combusting and that smoke would most definitely damage his lungs.

But the woman, surrounded by all that fire and rage, was wearing clothes similar to something he'd seen before. Like something out of a legend. Like Pramheda. His thoughts were interrupted when he saw her collapse, probably from lack of oxygen. He rushed forward. Surely, she was hallucinating. Then she tried to remove the metal from her side, but luckily he got to her in time to stop her.

And here they were. Him starving, minding an ungrateful, sky girl. Fortunately, she hadn't realized she was naked waist-up yet. Judging from her recent judgements of him, that wasn't going to be pleasant.

"Where the hell am I?" she asked, angrily tossing back the water. She figured she would die from dehydration before anything else and gulped it down.

"Where do you think you are?"

"Can't you just answer the question?" she countered. Again, he couldn't refrain from rolling his eyes at her immature response and instead, elected to remain silent and poked at the fire. "Excuse me, you didn't answer me."

Nothing. She growled in frustration and threw the newly emptied canteen. It was aimed at his head, but she was pretty sure her side had been septic while she was out. It only made it halfway across the room, and the stranger snickered. So she decided to forgo her radiating side, and threw a small, nearby rock with all her wrath. This one went for his temple. He yelled something (probably in whatever language he'd been speaking) and looked at her with murder in his eyes, his hair whipping to the side.

"Little. girl…"

"Where. am. I?" she shot back, her teeth biting.

The crazed look that crossed his face should've frightened her, but she was too concerned with getting her way at this point.

"What is wrong with you, huh?" His eyebrow probably could've cut her. "You're lying there, helpless, bleeding, and _naked_ ," he slowly stood up menacingly, "hungry and sick. And _all_ you care to do right now is pester your rescuer?" The fire illuminated his face with orange. "…with a rock?"

Panic rose in her throat for a second, but it dissipated. "Tell me where I am. Now."

His glare intensified and she knew she won.

"…No."

 _What?! He said…no…_?

Obviously the confusion was apparent on her face because he stalked back over to the fire, glower on his face. "Learn some fucking manners," before muttering to himself, " _Chon does em teng em ste_ **[1]**."

* * *

 **1 – "** _ **Chon em teng em ste**_ **?" I made up the word "teng" which means "think". Translation: "Who does she think she is?"**

 **Short chapter (sorry). Next few chapters, I plan to catch up with the Ark as well as the rest of the team (and make the chapters longer). We've got lots in store for us.**

 **Leave a review! I actually read and appreciate them. *Constructive* criticism welcome.**


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